The Tale of Trust
by Bonnie-San
Summary: In this new world, the bond between an Attacker and his Weapon means everything. But when the past finally shows it's true self, the things you are looking for might be closer than you think.
1. Prologue

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word Count:** 1681 words

**Summary:** Meeting Tyson, Max is introduced to a whole new world and thrown into a whirlwind of magic, mythical creatures and sorcerers. Suddenly, Kai's and Rei's past decides to show their ugly faces and then the will to redeem what was once done eons ago haunts their very steps. Their trust in others as well as their trust in themselves will be put to test in front of this long forgotten threat that wants to devour them all along with the rest of the world.

**Disclaimer: **Beyblade is the property of Takao Aoki, Toshifumi Kawase, Nihon Animedia and everyone else that had a part of the production of Beyblade. I own nothing except the ideas in my head. If I owned Beyblade, why the heck would I waste my time writing fanfictions when I could just as well make the real thing?

**A/N:** Hello there and welcome to this fiction that I hope you will fully enjoy. There are a few things that I want to get down and let you know before you start reading the story.

Message from my heart: This is a story that I've been working on for a _very_ long time trying to perfect it in every aspect in my own head before trying to get it down on the computer. This means that I'm putting this story up here as to try to deliver the feeling I get when I think of the story in my head to you readers. I do truly hope you enjoy it ^.^

Pairings: About pairings, I put very much weight in the characteristics of every person and the interactions between them. I will be trying to write this story with as little OOC as possible which means that there will be no pairings. But if you really want you can get some Shounen-Ai into it. That is okay but it is not my intention to write it. But I won't blame anyone for wanting some pairings ;)

Reviews: Reviews are something that I truly want and are very much welcome because it will definitely help me in the process of the story, but I won't be nagging about wanting reviews in every chapter so I say it here. Reviews will give me inspiration and it's always nice to get your opinion of my ideas. I'm very happy to get constructive criticism, but me nagging about reviews doesn't really help. At least that's how I feel about it.

I'm sorry about the length of the author note but I had to set things straight. Is things still unclear, then send me a message and I shall explain. Here is the prologue.

Enjoy!

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**-*-.-*-Prologue-*-.-*-**

In the setting sun, somewhere deep, deep within the still untouched forests in the north of the United States, was a little village filled with small old cottages. One particular cabin seemed to be older than the rest but it had one of the most beautiful surrounding the village could muster. It was standing in a big clearing right next to a lake making sure that the sun would be in view as long as possible. On the terrace of this particular cottage sat an old man in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth to the rhythm of wind and listening to the wind rustling the green leaves in the trees making them break the overall silence. The old man had his eyes closed as he enjoyed the wind dancing through his white hair. It made him relax and remember the days of old, a time when he was still freely travelling the world to visit all kind of places. In his youth he had seen everything from the rainiest parts of England to the Sunniest parts of Australia to the cold winters of Russia. He had even seen secluded parts of China which no one was ever supposed to experience. And what a story teller that had made him. But now he was back to the roots of his origin, the village in where he was born and raised, just waiting for the bonds that tied him to this world to wither away.

In the background he could hear children laughing and running towards the water breaking the tranquillity. He couldn't stop the smile from growing on his lips as he could hear them splash in the lake and laugh at each other talking about their eventful day. What he wouldn't give to make sure these little devils had a wonderful life ahead of them. They would probably live a normal life, making the mistakes their parents had tried to warn and prepare them for, giving their parents a living hell until they sometime in the distant future would end up like him. But he didn't complain, never would he complain about the advantages that came with the wisdom of age. His time had passed and it was their time to shine.

The splashing from the water had stopped and the silence was lying heavy upon the clearing once more. Feeling a little odd and observed the old man finally opened his eyes to see a bunch of shivering children standing around him with towels around their shoulders and trying to cover as much as possible to shield away from the cold of the night. So the sun had already set? Man, time flies…

"Great! You're awake!" One of the children exclaimed as the eagerness grew in his eyes. "Grandpa, can't you please tell us another story?" Of course he wasn't their real grandpa but they insisted on calling him that either way.

Another child jumped a bit to get a little warmer and opened her mouth to speak. "Please, Grandpa. We promise to behave."

The old man chuckled hoarsely. He never could deny these 11-to-12 year old children another story if they so wanted to hear them. These stories of his were meant to pass on to the next generation and it was his duty to make sure they never forgot them, his privilege to tell them so that they may retell them in the future to their own kids and grandchildren.

"Come on," he told them happily "Come inside the house to warm yourselves up. It must be freezing in the water at this time a day." They just laughed in the way only children could laugh, albeit that they were not so young anymore they still had the smooth edges of a child's face.

"You're just old grandpa," yet another child exclaimed. "It was perfect. It is just the air that is so cold."

"Dennis! Don't be rude!" The girl from before said and blushed at his impolite statement.

"I'm not rude, Alberta"

The old man just chuckled some more and patted both of their heads to tell them it was fine and that they could stop the fighting. "Don't fight kids, siblings should keep it together. But he is correct. I am an old fart." He smiled widely and everyone started to laugh at the situation. "Now why don't you come on in? Standing out here can't be too good for you." He turned around and went into the cottage, the children following shortly afterwards. "What do you kids say about lighting the fireplace and put you guys under warm blankets instead of wearing those wet towels, hm?" He lit the fireplace as he knew the children would run to get the blankets as they usually did. They visited so often that it was customary to bring forth the blankets to the storytelling. He had made sure to get a lot of blankets when they started to visit on a regular basis so that no one would be left without one.

When he was done lighting the fireplace he sat down on his regular chair next to it and waited as the children dropped in and put themselves down in front of him chatting away like they usually did. And wait he did till he had all their attentions. It didn't take as long as it usually did and they seemed very eager to start, so who was he to stop them from listening?

"So… what story do you want to hear today?" The children all began talking at the same time and the old man raised his hands to silence them and again catching their full attention. "Quiet down everyone. One at the time, please." He turned the child he knew was the one more tuned to shy away compared to the others and therefore didn't speak up as often. "Steven, what do you wanna hear?" The boy looked up in surprise that he had been the one on the receiving end of the question and spoke up hesitantly.

"Um, can't you tell us the one about Max, Tyson, Kai and Rei?"

The wind came dancing in from nowhere as if activated by the mere mentioning of the story and whirled around the old man's white hair before settling down but not completely disappearing. As it was the trigger everyone spoke up again and agreeing to Steven's choice of story. That was good, Steven needed the confidence-boost of making a well-liked choice.

"You wanna hear that one again?"

"Yeah! Everyone shouted. "Come on grandpa!"

"Okay, okay. You win" He said in defeat. "But first, why don't you tell me why you want to hear it so much. For as many times as you've heard this one before you should know it by heart by now." Looking out over the group of children he quickly counted them all to 10. They were about a dozen. That's a good amount for this time. "Jennifer, Why don't you start telling us why you want to hear it so badly?"

Jennifer began to think of the best thing to bring up and her face lit up as she came up with what to say. "Because it's about magic and about love."

"It's not about love! It's about intriguing fights and it's funny at times too." A kid named Daniel exclaimed

"Is too about love! Not about a romantic love of lovers but there is love nonetheless. The love between friends to keep them together through the hardships."

The old man broke the fight up with a cough and shifted his attention towards someone else. "What about you Dennis, why do you want to hear it again?"

"I want to hear the battle with Voltaire again and you're the best at telling stories, especially this one. You make it seem so real."

"If that is what you really feel then I will tell the story again. Thank you so much for your kind words Dennis." Dennis smiled a 'You're welcome' brightly and started to lean against Jennifer. He had expected there to be something going on between the two of them for a while now but it had yet to bloom out. "Shall we start?"

"Wait!" a smaller girl named Sandra shouted before running away to the kitchen to come back out cuddling a stuffed white tiger. She had forgotten that tiger last time she visited and always had it close. It was a present from the old man himself and he was glad she loved it as much as it should be loved. She sat down in her place and looked up, the tiger tightly in her embrace. "Now you can start the story."

The old man smiled and looked at the still damp children, the fire and the tiger and he felt the wind travel soothingly around him. Good, everyone was here. "So you wanted to hear about the four teenagers' quest to defeat the great evil source of Voltaire?" They all nodded eagerly. "Before now I have only told you the most important and destiny revealing parts making it a very good fairytale. I think it is due time that you got to hear the whole legend, that you got to hear the whole story behind the curtains and that you got the image of the powers growing within them all. I think that you are now all old enough to hear the real story to the breakdown of magic. This time this story will tell you the reason why there is no magic left in the world." He smirked as he could see the awestricken faces of the children. The wind blowing its own symphony around him making the thought of magic existing become more real to them and its performance guided them to the state of mind that made them suck in every little detail.

"Listen real close now children, because this tale I will be telling you is a tale about friends and foes, about trouble and deceit, of action and magic. But above all, it will be a tale about trust."

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A/N: And that was the prologue. It's a bit short but I think it work fine as it is. The first chapter should be out very soon too as it is already finished.

I will say it this once, Reviews are very much appreciated, reviews help me get inspiration and reviews will make me update much faster.

Have a great day!

/Bonnie


	2. Chapter 1

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word count:** 2697 words

**Disclaimer: **Same as in the Prologue. Why would it change just because there is a new chapter?

**A/N:** This is great *sarcasm sign*. Ahead is this task of trying to tell this story in a good way. The old man is a great story teller, but I'm not. And I don't like how this chapter turned out. At all. It definitely needs revising later but I thought that I should put it up before I leave to London for a week. Next one will be more fun though. I hope you won't judge the whole story based on this chapter because it's not really supposed to be like this. Oh well, at least it is something, right?

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**-*-.-*-Chapter 1-*-.-*-**

It started not all too long ago. The Lepricons still ran around the streets and you could from afar hear the Werewolves howl in the full moon. In the capital of Russia, Moscow, this particular clear night was filled with bright stars that seemed to watch your every move. Inside the pub called Avalanche a man sat alone by the bar and was leaning back with his elbows resting on the counter behind him. The man calmly looked out over the dance floor with his cool, close to blood coloured, red eyes that almost gave a chilly shine in the darkness beneath his light-blue fringe. The rest of his unruly short hair was dark-blue and he was wearing grey baggy pants, a black tight fit top and red sneakers. He closed his eyes as he sighed inaudibly, turning around taking a sip from his drink and turned back to keep look at the ever lively dance floor.

"You're late" He said in a bored tone directed to the suddenly occupied barstool next to him. This man had knee-long, black, silk-like hair put up in a loose ponytail and had a red bandana with the Yin and Yang mark on his forehead that kept his fringe from falling over his eyes. He wore a white Chinese shirt with golden edges and an embroidered golden tiger that was climbing from his chest to his left shoulder and wore black baggy pants. He shifted slightly at the harsh tone in the statement.

"Tyson stopped me. He-"

"Rei," The dual haired man interrupted "…no excuses." He turned to look straight into the man called Rei's bright golden eyes.

"Cut me some slack Kai. You know how he is. He doesn't know how to shut up."

Kai chuckled. "Give him some food or a snack. That will keep him busy."

"Not for long."

"Long enough for you to leave. Or you could glue him to a chair. That's your choice." Kai straightened himself. "That aside, Mr. Dickenson called. We have work to do."

Rei leaned on the counter. "What did we get this time? Vampires?" he asked, his whole face sparkling with curiosity.

"No… and yes. Our mission is to find and bring back a lone Weapon. The last recorded location however is in a vampire nest."

"They found a Weapon without an Attacker?" Rei asked in surprise. "That's rare… very rare. But then we must act quickly so they don't kill this Weapon. What else do we know?"

"Only the location. We don't need more information than that." With that Kai ended the conversation by drinking the rest of his drink, slamming the shot glass into the counter and walk away towards the exit. Golden eyes followed the man's proud composure for a few seconds before he shook his head and sighed. _Will he ever loosen up? Heh… probably not, but that's Kai for you._ Rei then quickly followed in the same direction after Kai until he reached the exit where he saw Kai standing in the doorway, waiting. Rei gave him a small smile before he passed gracefully, Kai following closely behind.

This was going to be an interesting night.

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It was close to midnight when they finally reached the desired vampire nest, an old abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Moscow city. It was very worn down and had probably seen its days of glory pass by a long time ago. Kai and Rei had stopped outside at the entrance looking at the door, which looked like it was about to fall from its hinges at any minute.

"So... this is it? This is the place?" Rei asked and glanced over to Kai who just nodded. "Well, at least it's not a complete dump. What's the plan, the usual?"

"Yes, as quickly and silently as possible. We are here to get the Weapon, if he's here. We don't want any unnecessary fights." Kai replied, his gaze never leaving the building and arms crossed over his chest. "It looks like it contains two floors. Let's split up. That way we'll cover a bigger area at a faster pace."

"Then who will cover what floor? The upper floor will probably contain some small rooms or offices while the storage area will be found at the ground level. Maybe I should search the upper floor."

"Sounds good to me." They entered the warehouse and found a staircase directly to the right. They passed each other a glance before they parted their way, Kai watched Rei disappear up the stairs before he turned around to give attention to his assigned task. He glanced around the stockroom which was _huge_. It definitely looked much smaller from the outside. It contained what seemed like an infinite amount of boxes piled onto each other in different heights to create a big that some piles reached the roof while others didn't.

Well, if he didn't start he wouldn't be finished anytime soon he told himself as he started to walk around the labyrinth of boxes. He could already hear muffles from the voices of the vampires that resided here. _They aren't very discrete. Hn, Lowlifes. Most certainly young vampires not much older than 50 at the most._ Kai thought, checking the outer corners of the storage area working his way inwards. He didn't find this missing weapon. He soon got closer to the vampires but dared not to go too close if they would be able to smell his scent.

"… a good little bugger. He was lucky that I was already feasting on another prey. Otherwise he'd been done for." One of the vampires said. Kai stopped in his track. Finally he was close enough to hear what they were talking about. With them talking as loud as they were in such a big room, he was surprised that he didn't hear them clearly earlier.

"But why did you just leave him running? Don't you know how much they are worth?" Another vampire asked with an angered voice. _…how much they are worth?_ Kai asked himself and continued to listen. _Maybe this could become informative._

"Well, yeah. For being alone without a partner he was rather strong. And I already started to feed of my prey. Couldn't just leave it there, it would run away and make a fuss out of it…" the first answered. Aah, they were most likely talking about his missing weapon. That these vampires had met him and that they were here meant that he wasn't in this room... meaning that he could either be on the upper level hiding in a corner or not here in this building at all. The second alternative was not an option he preferred. " … And he ran away before I was done. You do know what kind of a maze this place is. He could be anywhere. He probably isn't in this building anymore."

"But that one was alone. That's like super rare. There aren't many of them and most of them have a partner and then it's hard to get them down without being either killed or at least heavily wounded." A third vampire commented.

"Yeah, and I heard their blood taste like heaven. That might be the reason why they're worth a fortune." the second vampire spoke again. Kai sighed. He only heard three vampires here, there had to be more for them to be able to keep other vampires from stealing this nest. This place was too big for there to only be three of them. _I hope that Rei will be alright..._ Kai thought as he sat down silently. He made himself comfortable on one of the boxes and continued to eavesdrop on the conversation. _As long as he doesn't lower his guard too much, he'll be fine._

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When Rei reached the top of the stairs his eyes shied away from a blinding light. The corridor was almost too white. It took a while but his eyes got accustomed to it and he looked around. The upper floor was a big, long and crooked corridor. It was filled with a dozen of doors on both sides. Every door was closed. _Oh, just great. Hindrance. What if there is Vampires behind each and every one of these doors. Then I'm done for._ Rei pupils slit and his senses increased so that he could know hear what was in the rooms. He could hear voices, bodies that shifted and mumbling noises. Walking silently through the hallway, he focused almost entirely on his hearing. The voices got louder as he passed a specific door. At least for now they're only in one of the rooms. He continued until the end and noticed that it continued to the left. No more sound was heard so there was no more in this part of the building.

At the end of the corridor Rei noticed that the door to the right was slightly ajar to a completely dark room. _If I was alone in a big, unfamiliar building, hiding away from strong creatures, what would I do?_ Rei stared at the door in thought. _Could it really be that simple?_ He reached out for the door with one hand, got ready for the darkness inside and slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Rei hit the light switch, illuminating the room. It was a small office. The side walls were full with cupboards and in the middle stood a desktop full with big heaps of yellowed papers and letters.

The weapon was most definitely here. Its presence was almost touchable. He used his hearing to guide him to one of the cupboards on the right side of the desktop. A slow and deep breathing could be heard from inside it so he opened the door.

Inside was a blond boy, sleeping. He wore beige loose-fitting trousers and an oversized blue t-shirt with a big yellow star on one of the sleeves. A brown jacket was used as a pillow in the crowded space inside the furniture. Rei couldn't keep himself from chuckling at the cute bundle in front him. It was a wonder how he could've stayed hidden for so long. Especially with all the vampires roaming around in the old facility. Someone should have noticed. He put an arm under the blonde's back, the other arm under his legs, lifted him out of the cupboard and carried him out of the small office.

On his way back, Rei turned to the adjacent hallway that he came from and saw the vampires he heard before blocking his way. _Damn!_ he thought and quickly hid around the corner before he could be seen. They were talking loudly and proudly about some poor human that they had had fun with, toying with, before it had been sucked clean of blood. And to the sound of it, it was a girl too. Were there no boundaries to how low a vampire could and would sink?

Rei didn't like vampires. Usually acting too much like beasts and their moral was that of a 3-year-old, only thinking about selfish pleasure before the welfare of others, or even a friend.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Rei heard footsteps walking in his direction and he started to panic. Where should he go? Kai didn't want any fight to alert other vampires and he wouldn't make it back to the office in time. Not with "sleeping beauty" in his arms. Backing away slowly, he tried to open some of the closest doors only to find that they were locked. _There went the idea of finding a hiding place._ The vampires' shadows made themselves visible around the corner so Rei quickly put down the blonde to prepare for the encounter.

The first vampire to turn around the corner was welcomed by two sharpened claws digging its way into the eyes and a hard blow to the head and before the others could react they met the same fate but with hard kicks or punches to the head instead. He knew that it wouldn't keep them down for long but it would have to do for now. Rei looked around, saw them all lying on the floor and counted them to 12 vampires. Hurrying over to the blonde to pick him up again, he passed the vampires as fast as possible.

But it wasn't smooth enough. He tripped on someone's arm, almost making him fall over. _Oh no!_ Rei thought as he watched as the bundle gathered together from the hard punches. He turned around and started to run towards the staircase when he heard a pack of steps going up the said staircase. He was surrounded. _This is not good, not good at all. If I was alone or even better, with Kai, it would have been fine. But now I have a sleeping weapon in my arms and Kai is nowhere to be seen._ Taking a deep breath he leaned against the wall. If there ever was any god or gods, it or they must have decided to work against him on this mission.

Suddenly the wall behind him disappeared and with a surprised yelp, he and the weapon fell backwards along with it.

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The three vampires on the ground floor ascended the stairs and reached the upper floor. They saw the bundle lying in the corridor.

"Hey! What are you doing over there? Snoozing? Get up, you lazy slackers!"

"Mind explaining what you're doing on the floor?"

"Urgh… There… was…" They stood up and wiped some dust of their clothes and some held their heads in search for some comfort to their aching head. ".. Some shit took us by surprise…"

"It was weird. We couldn't even sense his smell."

"If we would've known he wouldn't have beaten us that easily." By now everyone was relieved of pain and ready for a fight.

"They're all excuses. You're supposed to be vampires for god damns sake so act like one!" One of the three closest to the staircase spurted. "That nuisance and that damned treasure. We could have been rich. We'll have to find them both. They couldn't have gone too far…"

The whole group descended the stairs and ran out the entrance. On the upper floor, one door stood open and unnoticed. Inside, Rei lay with the Weapon sprawled over him. That was close, too close for his liking. Had they been found, it would not have been pretty. A Weapon couldn't do much without his partner. That was a sad but true fact. They stayed positioned on the floor for a few moments to let the adrenaline lower a bit before Rei stood up with the sleepy-head still in his arms. He couldn't believe the blonde had slept through it all. He must be exhausted. Rei carefully went out of the room and down towards the exit and used his foot to open the door. Outside Kai was waiting about two meters away, leaning against the wall next to the door with arms crossed over his chest.

"…Seems like you found the target of this mission. Good." Kai used his leg to push himself of the wall and walked over to Rei. "…no need to look elsewhere then."

"He is a heavy sleeper. He's been asleep this whole time. And I met about a dozen vampires up there."

"You didn't…"

"Give me more credit than that. I took them out before they even realized what was happening, though it was a close call. My clumsiness saved me for a change."

Kai snorted and gave Rei a small smile. "Let's head home. The sooner we get out of here the better." They started to walk back towards the nightclub Avalanche and to a waiting taxi that would take them to the headquarters and their home.

"Yeah, and Tyson will be happy to finally have a partner. For far too long he's been nagging that the missions he get are being too easy." Rei laughed out.

"And then he will have someone else to bother."

"I wouldn't bet my money on it, Kai. It is Tyson we're talking about."

"Hn…"

And they went the rest of the way back in silence.

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**A/N:** So, that's it. Next time, Tyson will come forth. Oh boy I love writing him in fanfictions. His character is so fun ^.^

I will be gone for a while now so I won't be able to upload the next chapter until two weeks from now. I hope you can cope with it. Thank you for reading through this bad chapter. I truly appreciate it.

Be well

/Bonnie


	3. Chapter 2

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word count:** 4755 words

**Disclaimer: **There are sadly enough too many things that annoys me in the beyblade universe for me to own anything other than this idea of a story. E.g the age of the main characters (I still don't know who is the oldest and youngest out of the four main -_-)

**A/N:** Finally! My internet is back up after being closed off for about two weeks! I can now post this chapter. And this chapter was real fun to write. It just seemed to flow. Though I don't know how many times I've reread it -_- Aah well..

I won't keep you ^.^

Enjoy!

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**-*-.-*-Chapter 2-*-.-*-**

It was early in the morning in one of the rooms in the headquarters when the heavy silence was interrupted by a loud beeping noise. A deep groan escaped from the inhabitant of the room, muffled by a pillow, and a hand slammed down roughly on the annoying alarm clock making it fall to the floor. The said person just turned around and quickly fell back to the marvelously wonderful sleep that should never have been disrupted in the first place. It was again silent and the breathing started to become slow and shallow once more.

There was a knock and the door opened slowly. Rei glanced down at the sprawled body, smiling.

"Tyson, go back to sleep and you'll regret it. We have a surprise for you so I expect you to be down in the kitchen in ten minutes." And with that he closed the door leaving the sleep-tangled teen to his daily morning routine. Tyson sat up with much effort, his dark blue hair a complete mess, and scratching the back of his head. Bluntly he reached for a pair of grey jeans and a dull yellow t-shirt on the floor and yawned. Every night he left his clothes at the end of his bed but every morning he found them on the floor. Why he didn't put them somewhere else, he would never know. He saw the alarm clock on the floor and saw that the digits showed 8:34am. _Wow… 8:34… on a Saturday… They wanted something, right..?_ He dully started to change his clothes. His body just couldn't help but to dawdle.

…_Wait, did he say 10 min?..._

Tyson jolted awake and he leaped through the room hastily getting ready for the day. Did they always have to make him haste like that? They could've awakened him earlier! It's wasn't his fault that he wasn't a morning person.

When he was done he stopped and looked over to the bedside table. He sighed as he remembered that the alarm clock was on the floor, as usual. He went over to the clock and picked it up, simultaneously checking the time. It was 8:48. _SHIT! I'm late!_ He sprinted out of the room, picking up a red jacket, a pair of socks and his blue and red cap with him in the bypass, and ran to the kitchen.

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Downstairs Kai and Rei sat in the kitchen, Rei standing by the sink drying his hands on a towel, ready to sit down and eat breakfast, while Kai sat by the table reading the newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee.

"So, How many minutes did you give him today?" Kai asked in a bored tone. Rei turned around with a big grin on his face.

"10 minutes…" his grin turning into a smirk. "How late do you think he'll be?"

"10 minutes…"

"10 minutes? You don't give him enough credit–"

"You give him too much. Don't make his ego bigger than what it already is."

"That's just rude. He's not that bad. And he can do better than 10 minutes. I'd say 5 minutes." It was silent for a few moments as they shared challenging glances with each other.

"Are you on Kai? The loser gets to do the dishes today."

"Fine, it's a deal." The silence grew again. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, just silent.

The silence was soon broken by pounding fast steps from upstairs arriving towards to kitchen. Tyson rushed in though the open doorway, jumping on one foot trying to put on the last sock, slightly out of breath.

"Okay… I'm here.. What's the surprise?... Oh! Breakfast…" He sat down in his 'chosen' place and dug in without waiting for permission. Rei looked up at the clock hanging above the doorway and smiled.

"Told you so. You're doing the dishes." He winked. Kai made the usual 'hn'-sound in forced acknowledgement and started to ignore everything around him by taking a sip from his coffee and hiding even more behind his newspaper. Tyson looked up at Rei with his mouth full of food.

"Rawi, Whut wus thee Suprawise? Rei started to laugh.

"Hard to hear what you say with your mouth full, but you'll see soon enough. Kai, go and get him."

"The bet was for the dishes, not the fetching."

"Fine I'll go and get him." He said and went out of the kitchen. Tyson looked confused as he saw Rei's retreating body turn out of the room.

"Wawit... hm?" Tyson swallowed loudly. "What do you mean with him? Kai?"

"…"

"Don't ignore me! He did say 'he', right? Who's he?"

"…If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise."

"But I'm not good with surprises. Tell me."

"…"

"Come on Kai, tell me, or I'll be very annoying."

"So you aren't annoying now?"

"I could be much worse. You know that."

Kai just sighed and continued drinking his coffee.

As Rei went out of the kitchen he heard the two bicker, like they always did. It was hard to imagine that they were good friends. He went through a small hallway into a guest room. The room inside was completely dark and due to the light shining in through the door, Rei saw a figure lying in the bed at the right corner of the room, still fast asleep. He went in, closed the door behind him and sat down on the bed next to the blond. He turned on a lamp that stood on the bed side table next to the bed and shook the sleepyhead carefully. The blond awoke immediately with a startle and suddenly threw himself in the opposite direction away from Rei, gathering in the corner while looking for an escape route.

"Finally awake, huh?" The blond snapped his head in Rei's direction wearing a glare mixed with both fright and curiosity. Rei sighed then gave the bundle a warm smile. "It's alright. You don't have to be on edge here." The Blondie's look changed into disbelief and didn't relax one bit. "Don't worry, we're the same you and I. You won't get hurt here. Me and my partner found you in a tight spot there. You're lucky that we found you in time or the vampires would have gotten you."

A loud rumble escaped from the Weapon and Rei laughed and stood up. "According to your stomach, you need nutrition. Understandable in your situation. Come on, why don't we get you some breakfast. Just so you know, there are two others living here as well. They may seem strange but they're good people I assure you. By the way, I'm Rei Kon. It's nice to meet you." he reached out his hand and the blond watched Rei considering whether or not to trust him before he took Rei's hand and let himself get pulled out of the bed and towards the door.

"Max."

Rei stopped in the middle of the doorway and looked back to the blond boy. "Excuse me?"

"My name… it's Max." Rei grinned widely and put his arm around Max's shoulders.

"Hello Max. Welcome to our simple home."

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…" Come on, Kai! You think you're so special, huh?" Tyson loudly expressed. Kai's face was hard as he had a harder time trying to stay calm and collected but he kept quiet. "I'll show you who's the best Attacker around here. Let's continue this outside!"

"Thinking about how it went last time, why waste your breath?"

"I've worked hard since last time. Don't underestimate your enemies." Tyson crossed his arms and pouted.

"You're not my enemy."

"No, but that doesn't mean that I can't kick your sorry butt." Standing up to prove his point, Tyson slammed his fist in the table.

"You wish. And Tyson… sit down. Rei will be here any minute."

"Well, 'any minute' isn't fast enough." He sat down again. "Besides, he should know not to–"

"Guys, behave. We have a guest." Rei walked into the room and turned around to show them to the blonde boy hiding in the door frame. "These are the guys I was talking about. They look like they will bite you any minute but you'll soon notice that they just want to nibble." He noticed that Kai sent him a warning glare. "… anyway, you see the impatient loudmouth with the cap on his head is Tyson–"

"Hey! I'm not a loudmouth!"

Rei just grinned and continued. "–and the grumpy quiet guy with dual blue hair and also my partner is called Kai. It was him and I that found you." Rei walked over to Max and pushed him inside so they could see him better. "Kai, Tyson, this is Max. He is the newest addition of our humble family." Rei could see Tyson's eyes widening and jaw dropping.

"WHAT?" Tyson slammed his fists in the table yet again, standing up. "How come I didn't get any say in this?"

"Wouldn't be a surprise if we spoiled it for you. Besides, we did find him yesterday." Rei answered, Kai just continuing reading the newspaper, ignoring the drama around him.

"I don't want a complete random dude in our family. What good will he do?" Tyson went over to Max and studied him and saw Max shrinking a bit because of the bad attention. "Just look at him." Tyson hit him lightly over the head. "He doesn't even talk-" As the hit connected the two shivered simultaneously. They looked at each other and Tyson's face lit up. "Seriously! You're a Weapon? You didn't tell me he was a Weapon. This is so cool!"

Max finally relaxed and sent a smile towards Tyson. _That shiver, what was that? It felt… nice. Maybe they're not as bad as the vampires,_ he thought and sat down by the table still feeling a little awkward intruding the others home.

"Oh, this is GREAT! A Weapon… finally! I wonder if we're matched. We must be, it surely felt like it." Tyson sat down again next to Max.

A laugh escaped Rei's lips and he sat down next to Kai. "Didn't you just say that you didn't want him to be here?"

"Okay, so I changed my mind, big deal. I'm not like mister Sourpuss over there" he pointed towards Kai and continued to talk to Max. "Here, have something to eat. You must be starving." Max's bowl was stuffed with cereals and milk with no regards if he liked it or not. Max gave a nod as a thank you and dug into the food in front of him.

Golden eyes looked around the table at the three inhabitants. One was still reading the newspaper, the other eating breakfast warily and the last stuffing himself full. He felt something hitting his side and looked over to his left to see Kai's retreating elbow and nodding in the direction of the blunette and blonde before putting the newspaper away. Rei simply nodded back and turned his attention back towards the others.

"Tyson, Max. Why don't you two take this weekend to get to know each other better? After all, Max is new and need to know what's up and down around here. Just take it easy, go around in town or rent a movie, anything that might catch your interests. You'll get 4000 Rubles($135, €95 or £85*) to do whatever you want. That should be enough."

Both Max and Tyson stared at Rei for a couple of seconds, processing the words previously said. The blunette's mouth fell open and he stood up yet again. "For real? We're going to do whatever we want?"

"That's what I said." Rei answered with an amusing grin.

"… are you coming too Rei?" came in a low shy whisper from the blonde and two blue eyes looked to Rei almost pleadingly. The latter shook his head.

"This is a time for you two. Besides, Kai and I are going out for a mission. We might not be able come home until very late."

"Another mission again? And on a Saturday? Are you out of your damn mind?" Tyson had walked over to Rei and grabbed his collar roughly.

"It's none of your business." Kai jumped in and shoved him off Rei.

"But on a Saturday. Can't you two take a break once in a while? You need your rest too. What is it that you guys do that is so frickin' important that you don't care about your own wellbeing?"

Kai turned around and walked out of the door completely ignoring the blue haired boy. Rei sighed, eyes slit giving a warning look. The blunette gulped.

"Back off Tyson. Just don't. I know you care about us but don't meddle in things that you have no clue about. We've come a long way, we can't stop now. Have a nice day and take the chance to get to know each other. By the looks of it you two are connected and I do hope you truly are, for both of our sakes." And with that he too left the kitchen leaving Tyson and Max wide in their wake. Max turned slowly to Tyson and gaped slightly.

"What… just happened?"

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Kai sat outside by a tree when he saw Rei coming closer and he gracefully jumped up in the tree to sit on a tree branch above him quietly. Then they just sat there, in contentment, listening to the bird twitter. Every time Tyson put his nose where it didn't belong, Kai went out to just get away from it all. How Rei could possibly find him every single time, he had no idea. He didn't have a special pattern of places he visited, but he was glad. Even if he acted cold towards others, the content feeling of calmness rarely left when Rei was around.

"You know, our lead could wait until tomorrow." Rei opened up after some time in a low voice. "But then again, we do want to wrap this up as quickly as possible, don't we?"

"You do realize who it is that we might meet right. Are you sure you are fine with that?"

"Well…" Rei squirmed a little uncomfortably "…They are important to you right? And this is the first time we've even gotten close to find out anything at all about them in a year. So I'll be fine." Jumping down from the tree, Rei sat on his heels in front of Kai to make eye contact, giving a forced grin. "So either way, I don't have a choice."

"You could always say no."

"And risk you getting hurt, or worse, getting killed. I'd rather not have it that way." He stood up extending a hand to Kai. "But what do you say about going inside and pack a daypack? Then maybe both you and Tyson have calmed down enough to not separate whilst fighting."

Kai frowned "He should learn not to stick his nose where it doesn't belong." Then he took the offered hand and pulled himself up. "…Or maybe I should learn that he's never going to change in that perspective."

"Maybe, but now let's go inside. We have a long day ahead of us."

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An awkward silent was lying over the kitchen after Rei had run after Kai in a hurry. Neither Max nor Tyson had any idea of what to say as they sat by the table eating the last of their breakfast. This was very unusual as Tyson always had something to say, but now the words just seemed to be gone. When they finished, Tyson cleaned the table and then went to a chair and leaned on the back of it.

" Okay, this is getting us nowhere. The silence is driving me nuts. Maybe we should have better introductions. Hi, I'm Tyson Granger. And you are…?"

"Max Tate, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Max. What do you say about continuing our small talk out in the living room? It's much cozier in there."

Max nodded in answer and followed him out of the kitchen, through the hallway and into the living room. The living room wasn't big, it was slightly smaller than expected but contained everything that household needed in a living room. There was no door, just a big opening in the wall that was about 1.5 meters wide, a fluffy-looking sofa set with a three-seat sofa facing away from the entrance, one two-seat sofa on the right to it, an armchair to the left and a matching table in the middle of the room, a big TV by the opposite wall next to a window and a fireplace by the right adjacent wall. Tyson's word echoed in Max head. It was cozier in the living room. Max sat down in the armchair and Tyson took the sofa, spreading himself out.

"Now that's much better. So, let's start with the questioning Maxie" Tyson said in a joking tone making Max smile. "What were you doing here in Russia?"

Max made a grimace "I had to get away from something. I'm originally from the States but I got away from my family and then the vampires found me. I have been running from them for about two weeks. Though, I don't get why they would so devotedly chase me around for so long. Anyway, for how long have you known Rei and… and…"

"…and Kai?"

"Yeah! That's his name! How long have you three known one another?"

"Kai and Rei have known each other for as long as I can remember, but then again I have only known them for two years. As for Kai and Rei, I don't know any specifics. They are very reluctant to talk about their pasts. That damned Potatoff. You could ask them if you want but don't expect a great history lesson on their part."

Max tilted his head "… Potatoff?"

"Oh yeah, that's Kai. He's Russian and I always try to find different nicknames for him. He doesn't like it at all. Too proud I tell ya."

"Where are you and Rei from?"

"I'm from Japan and Rei's from China. You can see that on the way he's dressing."

"Wow, that's… But if you're from different countries, then how did you meet?"

Tyson looked surprised "How we met?" then he scrunched his face in thought. "Hm… well, again, I don't know about Kai and Rei more than that they met in China. They met me back in Japan when I was new to this whole ordeal. I had caught a fight with people I shouldn't have messed with out in an alley, accidentally mind you, and two of Kai's and Rei's friends found me and saved me. Weird pair I tell you but fun to hang around at times. They are also from Russia. It was their mission to find me and bring me home to the headquarters."

"Why would their mission be to find you?"

"That's because I'm an Attacker. What else?"

A confused face was painted upon Max's face. "An… attacker?"

"Yeah, an attack… What? You don't… For how long have you known that you were a Weapon?

And then Max looked even more confused, and a little hurt. "I'm a… Weapon?"

"Seriously, you don't know? How old are you anyway?"

"17 years, why?"

"17..? You're older than me? I'm 16, soon 17. Kai and Rei are both 19, but never mind that. How can you be 17 and not know that you're a Weapon? Have you been living in a cave?"

The Blond looked if possible even more confused than before. A deep sigh came from Tyson as he thought of how to explain the concept. He sat up and looked Max straight in the eyes. "I can only explain what I know so try to bear with me, okay?

"Well, you see, there are all types of different creatures. Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Humans etc. Those you know of… and then there are those that are more like myths but very much real like nymphs, lepricons and so on. And then there are The Attackers and The Weapons. That's what we are. One is kind of useless without the other, but when cooperating they become a dangerous pair, feared by most. The Attacker has the ability to release the Weapon's power and vice versa though you will notice that the Weapons usually are very reluctant to release the power of the Attacker–"

"Why's that?" Max interrupted.

"I'm not exactly sure, as I've never been in that situation myself, but I've heard that the raw power that the Weapon let out is too great for the Attacker to handle. The risk becomes too high as the Attacker most likely will become addicted to the immense amount of power and either start to abuse the power or go insane. What also could be good to know is the fact that every pair has their own signature fighting style and abilities, so just because you are stronger than one pair doesn't mean that you are quicker and yada yada.

"But I must say that as awesome as it sounds, the hardest part of this story is that Attackers and Weapons are rare in this world and you only truly connect with your one 'destined' partner. There are probably 200 max 300 in total. That means that some of us never find his or her special other as they might be born in different countries all together and they will never lose the feeling of searching after something."

It was quiet for a while as Max processed all the new facts before he spoke up. "So what you are saying is that I'm destined to have a partner and if I can't find him or her or loses that someone, I will live the rest of my live in misery?"

"That pretty much sums it up." The blunette said smiling.

"Do you have any partner?" Energetic curiousness shone through Max's eyes as he started to open up more to Tyson.

"Nope, still looking. But if I'm correct I found him recently." He answered with a big smile.

"Oh…"

It was silent again for some moments until something hit Max, his head snapping towards Tyson's direction.

"But wait! You didn't explain why I had vampires devotedly chasing me for two weeks. Is it because I'm… a Weapon?"

"You nailed it"

"It still doesn't explain why…"

"That I don't know. Either you have the library at the headquarters, I'll tell you more about that later, or you could ask Rei. He's a little more willing to speak about this kind of thing than Kai. Ask Kai and he will only redirect you to Rei anyway. You will notice that he hardly speak out if it's not necessary unless he's provoked. Especially around people he doesn't know and he can be quite insensitive. But don't fret, he is that way. Rei used a very good description: He looks like he will bite your finger of but if you let him get close enough you'll realize that he just nibbles, painfully sometimes, mind you, but not hard enough to pierce the skin."

"Thanks for the warning" Max stretched himself pulling his arms upwards before slumping down in the armchair again. "Well, that was a lot of information in one go. It will take some time digest. And now that that's out of the way, what do you suggest that we do today? I wouldn't mind walking a little around in Moscow, seeing some monuments, famous buildings, eat at a Russian restaurant, whatever comes to mind really. I haven't had the time to do anything except running ever since I arrived to this country."

"Hi guys" The silence rose as Rei walked into the living room and sat down in the free sofa crossing his legs and arms in one movement. "Have you come up with any plans for today?" They both shifted towards the newcomer.

"We just arrived at that part of the conversation. So far we only discussed our background story and I have told him a little bit about us. Speaking of, how's Kai?"

Rei averted his eyes to Tyson. "He's fine, as always. This is not the worst quarrel you've ever had so he will come around sooner or later." He found him scratching the back of his head

"It usually takes him longer to get that upset. What kind of a mission is it this time?"

They could both see Rei's eyes sharpen and his whole composure tense. A few moments passed but then Rei sighed and visibly relaxed. "Earlier this week we found a new track that could lead us straight to Tala and Bryan." Hearing the names made Tyson unconsciously jump slightly and tense. In the armchair Max looked between Tyson and Rei trying to figure out how to react. Who were Tala and Bryan anyway? Would he dare to ask? What if it was a touchy subject? Well, if he didn't ask he would never know…

"Who's Tala and Bryan?" Max intervened. Rei was the first to answer

"I don't know how much Tyson has told you already but they are very close friends to Kai. About a year ago they suddenly disappeared and we haven't heard from them ever since, though we do have a hunch that they didn't leave without a fight."

"… and I've pledged my life to find them again. End of story." Everyone in the room turned around to see Kai standing in the door opening with his arms crossed. "I'm ready to go."

Rei stood up and wiped some imaginary dust from his pants. "Then that's the cue for our departure. I hope you two have a great time and don't stay out too late." And with that Rei bowed slightly, went past Kai and out of the living room. Kai also turned to leave but before he left he looked towards Tyson giving him a quick glance then he was gone as fast as he came.

Left behind were Tyson and a very confused Max. He thought of the time since he woken up in this strange place until now and could easily say that this would take a while to get used to. Ever since he got to Russia his life had taken turn after turn for the worse, but now, hopefully, with his new companions he would make it out of here alive.

Was it even alright to just barge in here and intrude into their lives? Well, they had invented him to stay so he would take that offer. Who said that he couldn't have fun in the meantime? His head snapped toward the other teen.

"Tyson! Can't we go to the National Museum here in Moscow today? I haven't had the time to visit it yet." Max could see Tyson get startled by the suddenly interrupted silence and started to contemplate the words.

"Sure, we can go there. Though I can't see why someone would want visit a museum in the first place. They only contain old and out and outdated stuff in there… Hey! Stop laughing! I'm serious." But Max couldn't stop laughing. It had been far too long for him to hear himself laugh so he just let it go. He circled his arms around his stomach and let it flow out.

Tyson started to look a little more annoyed before he actually realized what he had said and also started to laugh. Together they laughed until it was all out of their systems. Tyson was the first to recover.

".. Aw man, that was a good laugh."

"Yeah, haven't laughed that bad since before we started this damned holiday. Thanks."

"No problem. With you here I think that this place will get a little more life to it."

"Life?"

"Yeah, Our two pals here in this house aren't exactly the most lively persons you can find. But don't you worry. It will be great. You, me and the rest."

Max looked a Tyson with a big goofy smile on his face. Before he had commented to himself that he would have troubles fitting in, now he changed his mind. He wouldn't mind this family at all. With Tyson… Rei… and Kai…

This is where he would live.

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**A/N:** And there goes that chapter. I'm having a little trouble with the next chapter. It isn't a writer's block because I know exactly what's going to happen, it just don't seem to want to get down from my head to the paper the way I want it. So it might take a little while until next chapter is up. Sorry 'bout that =( but it will get up.

Anyway, one thing that could help me on the way, is there anything that I missed to explain about the Attacker-Weapon relationship? Are there any other questions that pop up? Brainstorm! =D

Thank you for reading ^.^

/Bonnie

* This is depending on what currency converter you're using and at what time it's used it could be either more or less, but that's what I got at the time.


	4. Chapter 3

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word count:** 5180 words

**Disclaimer: **I do own neither Beyblade nor the Restaurant and tourist attractions used in this chapter. I always wish that I owned Beyblade though. Do dreams count?

**A/N:** And Finally! I'm done with this thing! This little bitch didn't want to be written unless in very inappropriate times where it was very late in the night and I had to get up early the morning afterwards. I do apologize for the time it took to write but Damn! It was hard. At least I made it, right? :)

The annoying part is that twice I got stuck for a really long time and, after I don't know how long, when I was lying in bed trying to sleep I just changed one fact or sentence and it was starting to flow again… for about 500 words and I was stuck again.

Before we continue I would just like to point out that I'm giving some credit to my dear friend AxelsDancingFlames that took care of the Beta-reading for the two previous chapters. Axels should put up some of her own stories here on too *hint hint*.

This chapter wasn't beta-read before though so there could be some careless mistakes but I'm confident enough in my English that there shouldn't be so many, if any.

Ah, well… here you go

Enjoy!

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**-*-.-*-Chapter 3-*-.-*-**

In the horizon the sun set to signal the end of yet another day. The day that had been warm and bright, where the sun had been shining forcefully upon the concrete streets of Moscow, was turning into a cool evening. The stressed people packed the streets while hurrying to get their last minute shopping done before the day drew to its closure and they had go on home to continue their oh so busy lives. Some decided to stay home to spend time with their family while others started to get ready for the nightlife of the Moscow streets. In this sunset, Tyson and Max were walking along a street not too far away from the Red Square chatting about everything and nothing and trying to find what to do from here on. The smell of food hung in the air as they passed a restaurant and their stomachs complained loudly at the unintentional neglect. They looked at the sign where the name was surprisingly written in the western alphabet.

"Yolki-Palki? That sounds Russian enough. What do you say about checking this place out?" Max asked Tyson. Not really having the patience to walk around for other places to 'check out' he was already on his way in and simply nodded as a small reply. They sat down at a table by a window that lead out to the now less occupied streets in front of the restaurant and waited for the staff to give them their attention. They didn't have to wait long until a blonde, good-looking waitress arrived wearing a blood red dress with a black apron on. She gave them the menus, picked up her notepad and turned to them with an almost overly bright smile.

"Privjet, Chto by vy hoteli sdelat' zakaz?"

All she got in return was two pairs of surprised faces that stared at her as if she was growing out another head. Her bright smile faltered a bit but it still held that too-polite aura. She shifted her weight and her smile caught up on her face. She opened her mouth and a heavy accent coloured her speech.

"What would you like to order?"

Tyson didn't even open the menu and answered directly. "We both would like to eat from that buffet."

"And beverage?"

"I'll take a Coke. What about you Max?"

Max stared at Tyson and answered with a hesitating voice. "A lemonade, please."

The waitress shook her head. "I'm sorry but we don't serve lemonade here."

"Then I'll take ordinary orange juice." The waitress nodded and took up the menus again. You could hear her high heels hit the floor in every step as walked away leaving them all alone. A small ball made of a table napkin hit Tyson's head and he placed his attention to Max who pouted at him. "Why did you order for me? What if I would have wanted something different?"

"Believe me but you don't want something else. More or less everything that's on the menu is in the buffet and then you can eat as much as you want." He said as if that would tip the scale to the buffet's favour. "I've been here once before. You said that you wanted to try traditional Russian food, right? There you got it. It's all in the buffet." They both rose up to fetch food at the buffet table and were quiet until they sat down by the table again.

"Finally some lovely nutrition. I'm starving!" Tyson exclaimed as he quickly dug into the food, trying to fill his bottomless stomach.

"You don't say." Max filled in to the conversation while he started to eat from his own plate in a little more civilized way. "After walking around the city for several hours you're bound to get hungry, and it has been great! Thank you so much for taking me out today."

Tyson waved one hand in a discarding movement. "Nah, don't mention it."

"No but really, thank you. I wouldn't have been able to make this day all by myself. Since I've arrived I haven't had the time to enjoy my stay, if you catch my drift."

"Everyone deserves a break every now and then. It's part of the wonderful feeling you get when working, to know that you can take a break. Oh! Speaking of breaks and work, I wonder when we'll get our first mission together."

Max sat still for a minute, watching Tyson hurriedly devour the food. Taking a deep breath he shook his head. "I've been meaning to ask this all day. What is it that you do? What kind of missions?"

As Tyson was about to continue the conversation the sound of his fork hitting the plate emitted with a loud clonk and he looked down to see his plate empty. A frown grew on his face but it quickly disappeared and he looked up towards Max too see that his eyes were widened.

"That's impressive. And did you look down even once while you ate?"

"Three times I think, I'll be back in a sec."

Tyson hurried towards the buffet table again and left Max to eat his own food in silence. He studied the fork with the food on before he put it in his mouth. This was supposed to be Traditional Russian dishes? It didn't taste bad at all. But he did miss a nice good burger with lettuce leaves, tomatoes, cheese... Tyson broke his thoughts as he came back with another plate full. And this time he ate at a more decent speed but the big bites didn't lessen.

"You know, for getting chased by vampires for weeks and thrown involuntarily into this crazy new world, you are taking it in very well."

Having realized that he had been spacing Max turned to look away. It took a few seconds for him to answer and when he did he looked up again with resolve and determination. "At least this way I'll be more useful." But it quickly turned into a smile making Tyson wonder if he'd been any serious at all. "Besides, it feels much better inside to look at different situations as positively as possible."

Tyson put some food in his mouth and then waved his fork in Max's direction. "Thwa, mwan, isch aw wheel dmrlbe qvawlit"

"Huh..?" Max answered intelligently and just stared back.

"Eeh…" Tyson swallowed. "…It's a really admirable quality you have there, man."

"It's not really a quality. It is more of a motto I live by."

"You may say that but it's a personality trait that not many have nowadays."

Max looked down on his hands, feeling a bit embarrassed by the blunt compliment, fiddling with his thumbs. "But it's nothing special, really."

"Oh it's special alright." Tyson snapped his fingers. "You know why? Because you are my partner, that's why. And that says something."

"But didn't you say that you recently found your partner?"

"Yes, I did. I found you recently, didn't I?"

"But, how do you know that we are partners?"

The sound of Tyson's fork hitting the plate rang out again and another frown blew up on his face as he looked down to find his plate yet again empty of food. Max was soon finished with his plate though so he could wait a minute. "I d'know, I can just feel it. I heard from the others that you can feel it even from the first touch and that I felt, you should have too." While standing up Tyson almost tipped the chair over and pointed in Max's direction. "Plus you are too awesome to not be my partner."

Max laughed at Tyson's abrupt cockiness and stood up as well. "But you don't even know me," They both went over to the Buffet table to get more food. "…or I you, for that matter." He continued with a smile on his lips.

"In due time my friend, in due time. We have eternity ahead of us and damn, let's spend it in the best way we can. Doing missions for BBA, irritate Sourpusses, saving the world if possible, you name it. The future has many paths forward."

By now they had returned to their table, this time Tyson had brought two plates in impatience to make sure he wouldn't have to go back and forth to the buffet table too many times.

"You almost sounded a little philosophical there" Max pointed out with an ironical tone.

"What? I am smart."

"So you say, By the way, you mentioned BBA before. What is BBA?"

"It's the organization we work for. We take on whatever they throw our way and they fix us money, shelter and a place to sleep."

"That doesn't really tell me what the organization is about"

"Oh, that's true. And I'm not sure how much more I can tell you out here in a public area like this, but I know I can tell you that BBA give us-". Something hit the window next to them with a loud bang and both Max and Tyson skipped to look out of the said window. Then time seemed to slow down, all sounds dampening and everything seemed to move in slow-motion. Tyson felt some movement behind him and made to turn around and face the unknown but froze as he felt someone's breath in his ear. His eyes widened and the presence behind him disappeared. The time sped up again and he whipped around only to see a dark figure escaping out through the entrance. The noise in the restaurant was back to normal and Tyson bolted away not wanting to let the gestalt out of his sight. He threw open the door but the dark figure was long gone, mixed with all the miscellaneous people roaming the street. Max appeared behind him.

"Tyson? What's wrong?"

Tyson looked around one more time still futilely trying to find some sign of that person. He could swear… "Did you see him?"

"See who?"

"… Never mind. Damn it! What a coward! Can't even meet me face to face. Come on, let's go back in." They walked back into the Yolki-Palki restaurant and straight back to their table. Max sat anxiously down fiddling with his silverware in his food, not really feeling like eating anymore.

"What was it that you saw?" Max looked at Tyson noting that Tyson didn't seem to touch his food either.

"…It was not much of what I saw but a question of what I felt or heard." He looked up at Max and Max felt himself grow a bit stiff at the unexpected visual attention. "Someone was behind me and that creep said-… he got right behind me without me noticing. That's so freaky."

"Who would ever do something like that? Was it someone you know? You did see him…"

"I'm not sure, I didn't get good look." Tyson shook his head, let his fork go and threw his arms up in the air to let them fall back to cross on chest. "I don't get it! If it really was him them why go all secretive?" A pout grew on his face. "I mean, come on! Why not face me like normal people and take it like a man? But then again… ARGH!" Tyson placed both of his hands to the side of his head and wiggled them. "I don't get it!" Tyson then growled as he looked down on his plate to find it empty. "And he stole my chicken!"

Max laughed right out. "You know, you did eat it yourself just now. Didn't you notice?" He could see Tyson shrink a bit. To say that Max was amused by what he saw was an understatement. "Brighten up a little, why don't you just go and get more chicken? It's not that far to walk."

Tyson tried not to let the incidence get to him and gave Max a strained smile. "Well, I'm not really hungry anymore, I'm rather stuffed. What do you say about ditching this place and return home when we're done here?"

"Sure, I won't mind. My feet are killing me anyway. But before we leave can't we visit the Red Square? It's so close."

At the small attempt to brighten him up, Tyson smiled. "Sure Max. We'll go to the Red Square. Why not?"

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As they arrived back at the house they all lived in it radiated of a warm and cozy feeling that made both Tyson and Max long for a closure to the long day that had passed. Tyson stood in front of the door and for some reason just couldn't grip the handle, he was hesitating to open the door to the sanctuary of home. With his hand hovering above the handle he stood completely still. Max' wondering eyes wandered on his back and to not attract questions, Tyson took the courage to move. The door flew open as a result and Tyson pounded in making himself heard with Max following closely behind.

"Hi Guys! We're Home!" When they walked through the door it was almost as if they walked straight into an invisible wall. The smell of cooking hit them, deceiving the silence that otherwise greeted them, telling them that someone was in fact home. "Is anybody there?" He called out anyway as to get a response but only silence treated them any respect. They both took off their shoes and walked in to find Kai sitting in the living room watching a show on the TV and having the fireplace crackle in the background. Tyson puffed his cheeks and walk over to stand in front of Kai leaving Max in the hallway. "Hey dude! What's the matter with you? If you are home, why didn't you answer when I called?"

Kai looked up towards Tyson and smirked. "Why bother? I figured you would find your way over here anyway. And look at that, you just did." That answer made Tyson annoyed out of his skull, which was Kai's goal. It was precisely what he needed now that he wasn't in his best mood.

"You could still have answered." He pouted.

Smirk fading away Kai looked down again as if still staring at the television through Tyson once more. "Tyson… move. You're blocking the TV."

"Since when do you watch TV? …don't answer that, I know you watch the news."

Kai's patience ran low, still focusing though Tyson. "Move Tyson."

For once Tyson did as he was told and sat down in the other end of the three-seat sofa to where Kai sat. He shifted so he was facing Kai. "When did you get home?"

"Just recently. Now shut it." Kai said monotonously.

An awkward silence fell on the two as they watched the TV-show, the fire place crackling in the background. Tyson pondered on how to bring up the things he wanted to say but as the time drifted away it got harder to start a new conversation again, especially when the show on TV was stealing his attention. It was some stupid show about nerds and somehow it was strangely entertaining even if he didn't get half of the jokes.

But he couldn't let this rest without being mentioned so he prepared for an oncoming argument and nudged Kai's shoulder from where he sat with his left foot. At first he didn't receive any reaction at all but he continued. Tyson could see the irritation growing inside Kai unusually fast and smirked at the success. If you used your imagination you could easily imagine tea pot steadily whistle louder and louder. In an instant Kai took hold of Tyson's foot and threw it down towards the floor, making sure to miss the table.

"I told you to shut up." Kai hissed in an angry tone that was not to argue with. Tyson then knew that now was not the right time to be difficult.

He didn't care. He had to get this out. "And so I did, but I won't anymore. What is it that you two are doing out on your missions, Kai?"

"I've told you before."

"You've told me that you're trying to find Tala and Bryan again. That is not what I meant. What are you _doing_ on your missions?"

"That is confidential information and none of your business. Now shut the hell up or I'll make you."

Tyson ignored the last threat. "It is my business. We live together." When Kai didn't continue he went on to the real reason he started this. "I met Bryan today."

The next thing he knew he was lying down on his back in the sofa with Kai above him, strangling him. The crimson, cruel, ice cold eyes pinned him down better than the hands' grip around his throat ever could. Tyson started to struggle.

"Wha- Kai-?"

"Where?"

"What.. are you-"

The pressure increased. "You said Bryan. Tell me where."

"Kai.. No.. air.." In response Tyson felt some air get sucked into his lungs and he gave away small coughs.

"I won't ask you again Tyson" Kai increased the pressure again as a warning but released it again, gaze still as intense. "Where, did you meet Bryan?"

Tyson had to look away as the glare intensified to a level he'd never seen before. He tried to gulp but didn't succeed. "It was at the restaurant where we ate. He said something to me behind my back but when I turned around he was already gone." He felt the hands around his throat disappear and massaged the sore areas with care. When he finally looked up he saw Kai sitting down in the armchair next to the three-seat sofa, having placed his face in one of his hands while the other circled his own stomach. Kai had his back turned towards Tyson but Tyson knew Kai, Tyson could see the tenseness in his body so Tyson continued to speak. "It was in the restaurant with the buffet. The one we went to two weeks ago. Suddenly I heard Bryan's voice in my ear telling me to keep a track of you, telling me that you're doing something stupid. When I turned around he was already walking out of the door. What are you doing on your missions Kai?" He heard a sigh from Kai.

"First you tell me exactly what he said."

"He said something along the lines of:" He tried to imitate Bryan's voice. "'Keeping track of your friends Tyson? Or will you lose them to the hands of destiny?' At least that is what I heard. Who else must he have meant but you two? And what does he mean with destiny?"

Kai ignored the questions and turned around to face Tyson. "I'm guessing that it's the dangerous parts you wonder about. The missions that we get they aren't very hard. The only thing we do is to go underground to several contacts we have and also investigate different places. For the most part, that is what we do. The risk is what is dangerous. We could get caught in something that would make us unable to some back or meet people we shouldn't have." He shifted around towards the TV again and hissed. "Now you know so, for the last time, shut it."

Again Tyson did as he was told; he sat down and kept quiet. Wow, he had listened to what Kai had said twice now without any complain. That must be a new record.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

In the hallway Max had stood and observed the two for a while but when they grew silent he headed for the kitchen where he saw Rei standing by the stove, tapping his foot to the beat of some unheard music and whatever Rei was cooking smelled delicious. Max sat down by the kitchen table to dwell in that smell and observed the show that was Rei. Feeling something on his back Rei turned around and got startled when he saw Max sitting there swinging his legs back and forth. Tugging out the earplugs to his headset he turned off his music.

"Hey there, you could have said something."

Max shrugged and smiled. "I didn't want to disturb you in your little moment there."

Rei lowered the heat a bit on the stove and put a lid over the pot. "Not to sound rude but it can't be very entertaining to look at me while I cook. Cooking is one thing but just watching? For how long have you been here?"

"We got home just a few minutes ago so don't worry, I'm no stalker." Max winked with a big grin. "What are you making? It smells very good."

"I tend to hear that." Rei yawned and put his hands up in the air, stretching himself.

The tone in Rei's voice startled Max. He didn't let it show but instead made sure to have a very joking voice. "If I didn't know better I would almost say that you sounded a bit disappointed."

"I guess I am. I don't even like to cook. It gets boring after having to cook every single day for the last couple of years. You do run out of ideas. I'm waiting for a little pause away from that daily routine."

"What about Tyson and Kai? Aren't they helping?" Max asked confused and as an answer Rei laughed heartedly.

"Those two? Cooking? Heh, I'd rather be bored for the rest of my life than for that to happen again."

Disbelievingly Max shook his head. "It can't be that bad."

Rei rolled his eyes. "Oh believe me, it can. We have tried. If we start with Kai, he doesn't have any talent at all when it comes to housework, not to mention cooking." A chortle escaped his lips. "The one time Kai got near the stove to cook he accidently used sugar instead of salt and burned the food as he put the heat on too high and didn't even think of lowering it." He looked Max in the eyes showing his amusement over the memory. "Tyson could probably manage to make decent food but it always seems to end in one of two ways." He held up one finger to demonstrate. "One, it could end up totally burnt as his short attention span would make his attention find something more interesting to do and completely forget the food that he should be watching." Rei held up a second finger. "Two, in his eagerness to finish the food he would put the heat up so it would seem ready all too early but it would still not be cooked in the middle." Rei walked over to the stove to check the pot and spoke over his shoulder. "It was just easier to let me take care of it. They say it's because I'm from China that I can cook, but… I don't know. I doubt it anyway. Can you cook?"

A blush grew on Max' face and he scratched his neck. "I'm not that good to be honest, so far I've managed to make pasta and hamburgers. But that's about it." Without thinking his face lit up by thought that popped into his mind. "I wouldn't mind learning though." Big sparkling eyes asked the simple question even before he spoke it out loud. "Can you teach me? Please."

Rei was about to say no when he saw Max' eager eyes and sighed in defeat. "Fine, how can I say no to those puppy eyes of yours?"

Max grinned in success and gave a nod in thanks. The subject then died out with a mutual agreement. Using the kitchen tools Rei turned the food around and deemed it finished. He put the lid on the pot again, turned the heat off and let the pot stand on the stove plate in the after heat. He sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table to Max and slumped down with a deep sigh.

"Had a tough day?"

Rei looked up at Max with one eye as if just remembering that there was another one in the room but decided to stay in the position he was in. "You could say that. Kai's in a bad mood as it is. He doesn't need their games."

"I take it your mission today didn't go well."

"It could have gone worse. We got another chance tomorrow, so no worries. Just let him sulk, it'll be alright." Rei changed position by sitting up normally to lean his chin in his hands on the table and decided to change topic. "I heard that you are from the United States, correct?"

Confusion struck Max. Where did that come from? …and how could he possibly know? Neither Tyson nor himself had told him, right? Or had he heard when he and Tyson had talked before? "…That's correct. And you're from China." It wasn't a question.

"Yes... I am. Where from the United States are you?"

"Nowhere special, it's just from a small island to the northeast of San Francisco. What about you? Where in China are you from?"

Rei hesitated to answer, how could he bring this up without the reaction he knew it would trigger? "To be honest, I don't know."

Max' eyes widened in surprise. "What..? How could you not know?"

"Easy. I don't have any memory of neither my birth town nor my past prior 5 years ago. It's all gone with the wind." A hand waved as in gesticulating that it was a topic that should be considered light.

"And… it doesn't bother you at all?" Max asked sceptically.

Rei shrugged and stood up. "Well, can't really do anything about it so why go around missing it?" He walked over to the doorway and leaned on the door frame. "But I can tell you that it is annoying when there are people who know me better than I myself." His eyes twitched a little before he turned his head in the direction of the living room. "Tyson! Kai! Dinner's ready!" Satisfied with Tyson's shout as a reply he went to set the table with plates and silverware. Tyson arrived shortly afterwards destroying any attempt to continue the previous conversation. He quickly caught the atmosphere in the air and made sure to break it.

"Hi guys! What's for dinner?"

"I decided to do something simple today." Rei replied. "Fried noodles and chicken."

"Smells good enough." Tyson said and sat down next to Max.

"What about Kai?" Rei directed towards Tyson but stared at the entrance.

"He told me to go head, being a sourpuss and all. Rei, what were you two doing on your mission today to get him in that kind of a mood?"

Rei dumped himself down on an available seat and stroke his face. "It didn't go as planned today. We were informed that Bryan and Tala was supposed to be at a certain place but when we got there, we met Ian and Spencer instead." Rei started to automatically serve food to everyone while talking. "They are playing games with us Tyson. And it's probably one of Bryan's ideas too. At least we got some new directions from Spencer. So we still got a new chance. That I think is the most torturous thing they could do to him. Give him new hope that we both know not to trust." He sighed and took a bite of some chicken from his plate. He saw that both Tyson and Max were deeply contemplating his words. He couldn't help to smile at their goodhearted nature. "Now that you know you will have to make an effort to still my curiosity. How was your day? Was it any good?"

It took a moment for both of them to register the questions but when they came to it, their eyes brightened and they both spoke out simultaneously. Chuckling, Rei raised his hands to stop them. "One at the time, please." It was Tyson who was the fastest to start.

"Oh dude, you should have been there. You would have loved it!"

Max continued. "It was amazing. We visited the State Historical Museum, Lenin's Tomb and the Red Square. We had great luck with Lenin's Tomb, 'cause it's closed on both Fridays and Sundays."

"We also visited The Kremlin and my favourite, the Museum of the Great Patriotic War."

Rei's eyes widened. "You mean 'The' Kremlin? The Moscow 'fortress' and the one architectural monument that serves as a symbol for entire Russia?" The others nodded. "Damn it, I want to see that one."

"You haven't seen it yet?" Max asked surprisingly. "For how long have you've been in Moscow?"

"Several weeks. But I haven't had any time to go sightseeing."

"I told you to take it easy, but do you ever listen to me? No." Tyson added despite Rei's warning glare. "If you would have taken time for it then you could have seen St. Bastet's Cathedral. That one I know you would have adored seeing."

"Ehm, St. Basil's Cathedral, Tyson." Max corrected discreetly and the other snorted and crossed his arms.

"It's close enough. All I know is that it was the oldest most outstanding building in Russia. I read it in the brochure."

Kai entered the kitchen in that moment. "Tyson, Bastet was the Egyptian goddess of cats. There is a big difference there." Tyson huffed as Kai sat down by the only available seat left and taking the liberty of serving himself. "And St. Basil's Cathedral is one of the most outstanding monuments of Old Russian architecture. Learn to study what you actually read."

"Is this the bully-Tyson-until-he-can't-stand-it-anymore evening or what." He pouted and Max and Rei laughed while Kai snickered. "I'm serious here, I'm not that bad."

"I guess not," Rei pointed out, still smiling, "And you are completely correct, I really want to see St. Basil's Cathedral. If I remember correctly it's the monument that became the Russians' symbol of native history and culture."

"Please, no more history!" He begged and Tyson started to pull his own hair in frustration. "Kenny is enough as he is, don't you start as well."

"Kenny?" The confusion of Max' voice broke Tyson's hysteria.

"Kenny is one of my closest friends. Oh, I can't wait until you meet him. I'm sure that you will get along just great." Tyson said and gestured exactly how much he believed what he said with his hands. Smiling bigger than was first thought possible Max nodded eagerly.

"I'm sure we will, Tyson. I'm sure we will."

They sat there in kitchen chatting until very late in the night when they realized that it was time to go to bed. A very disturbing feeling slowly crept through the house as they all retreated to their resting shrine of this sanctuary. The crawling in their skin told them that something big was about to happen but they didn't want to destroy the good feeling this evening had given them and a good night's sleep would definitely be the cherry of the evening.

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**A/N:** Seriously, What is Beyblade without some kind of history lesson? Sadly enough Kenny wasn't here so Kai and Rei had to take his role as the teacher.

The Russian in this chapter is Google-translated and might not be 100% accurate, but as I don't know any Russian and isn't in contact at all with any of my two Russian acquaintances it will have to do.

But the Russian restaurant is actually something I looked up. It does exist a restaurant with that name and it is located not too far away from the Red Square. I also looked up that it does serve traditional Russian food. Hence I put a disclaimer up before. However I do not know the outfit of the waitresses have, the restaurant's design/architecture nor if they serve a buffet or not.

Next chapter shouldn't be so hard to write. I can feel the inspiration in the air :D

Have a great day!

/Bonnie


	5. Chapter 4

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word count:** 10327 words

**Disclaimer: **Yeah, well… I tried to steal- *cough* -borrow my favourite character some time ago. Takao Aoki sent Bryan at me to get them back… Let's just say I'll think twice before trying it again… I think…

**A/N: **Wow, I'm baffled. It's done. I've been working hard on this one and I can say that if it wasn't for Sparkleshadowcat then you would have had to wait even longer for the chapter to be finished. She helped me a great deal. But then again, I also waited for my dearest friend AxelsDancingFlames. Because I wanted her review of Chapter 3 before I put chapter 4 up. And finally I got it! =D

Well, at least I made up for it by writing the double length of what I've written so far, right? Again, this isn't Beta-read, but anyway…

Hope this will be to your satisfaction =) … Enjoy!

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**-*-.-*-Chapter 4-*-.-*-**

The morning sun rose along the horizon making the birds sing their morning tune to signal an early start of the day. In the outskirts of Moscow, one blonde American was starting to slowly wake up to the beautifully colourful sunrise. Waking up at his own pace he felt peaceful and was perfectly at ease. He couldn't help but to marvel over the possibilities the new day could bring. The previous day he had found not only that he wasn't who he thought he was but also learned that he could do so much more than first thought possible. His life had taken a turn for the better now and the feeling of appease would be hard to break. He would have to hope that it wasn't a onetime deal and things would go back to the way it used to be. Getting out of the bed he started to get ready for the day. While putting on his last piece of clothing he heard noises and movement from the kitchen. It almost sounded like an argument going on. Max' curiosity peaked, so he stepped out of the guest room he temporarily slept in and walked in to the kitchen to find both Kai and Rei in there. Rei stood by the fridge as if about to open the door to it but never making the movement while Kai sat by the table staring at Rei judgingly. Or glaring might have been a more accurate description. Neither of them had seemed to notice that they had received company.

"Do you hear me Kon? Don't you dare take even a single step out of the house today." Wearing a distant look Rei didn't answer acting like he didn't even register the words thrown at him. He waved away the threat and finally opened the fridge and took out a carton of milk. Two strong arms quickly gripped Rei's arms and stopped the motion as he was going to pour the milk into a frying pan and when Rei looked down he seemed surprised that he hadn't been about to pour the milk into a glass. He turned to face Kai but managed only to turn half way due to the fact that that said person was holding his arms in place.

"You know Kai, I can take care of myself."

"And I'm supposed to believe that when you were about to put your milk in the pan. Face it Rei and go back to bed where you won't be in the way."

Rei snatched his arms from the hold and pushed Kai away to get free. He put away the pan again and poured some milk into a glass instead before he put the carton back in the fridge. "I'm not going to the damn bed. I'm not sick." Kai almost growled. Rei was too stubborn sometimes, especially at times like this.

"You might as well be." He saw that he had lost Rei's attention again as he had got stuck in front of the door to the fridge once more. Kai sighed in frustration. He slapped the back of Rei's head and the force managed to get his focus running again. This was going to be a very long day, Kai could tell by the knot he felt in his stomach. He took notice of Max' presence when he made ready to walk away but still addressed Rei. "If you don't pull it together before I decide to leave I will make sure you don't follow. Max, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid and get hurt. I have no need for a broken Weapon." Max paralyzed at the sudden attention as Kai walked straight past him leaving Max alone with his responsibility. Rei glared after Kai.

"What a grouch." He muttered under his breath and sat down by the table rolling the glass of milk between his fingers. The blue sparkling eyes that had been following the Attacker out shifted over to his new charge and sat down on a chair to join him.

"What was that about?"

"What..?" Rei seemed a bit distant again, though Max could see him trying to pull it together.

"That dispute just now, mind telling me what Kai was on about?"

Rei leaned back and exasperatedly turned away from Max to hide his true feelings over the matter. He took a sip from his glass before he answered. "He thinks that I'm not at my full potential today, that I'm not alert enough to meet Tala and Bryan."

"And…? Is he correct? You do seem a bit spaced out."

A frustrated sigh escaped Rei's lips as he tried to force the tension in his shoulders away. "I guess. But I won't ever let him do this on his own." After drinking the rest of the milk he stood up and started to walk out of the kitchen, again muttering under his breath. "If it wasn't for this godforsaken rain…"

"Wait!" Max bolted up not really ready for his charge to get out of his sight yet. Getting on Kai's bad side this early on wasn't part of his plan. He saw Rei stopping and turning around. "Where are you going?"

"Away from the never ending rain. It never seems to stop. At least I try." Rain? There was no rain. Max had woken up with the beautiful sunrise shining through the window. Seeing Max' worried look Rei reassured him. "Nothing's wrong. I'll be up in my room meditating. Oh! Max, would you do me a favour?"

"Yeah, sure. You name it."

"It's starting to get a bit late. It's almost noon, so would you wake Tyson up for me? Thanks." And without waiting for an answer Rei left Max alone in the kitchen to ponder over the request. It took a few moments to register the given task.

"But how do I find his room?" He asked in a whisper to the empty room. Realizing that he would have to manage by himself he mentally prepared. If he didn't know where it was, he would find it on his own. This couldn't be so hard now, could it? And luckily the house wasn't that big. Stepping out into the hallway and skimming it through, he found that he had been to every room on this level. That meant that Tyson's room had to be on the upper floor. Max ascended the stairs and immediately located Tyson's sleeping area. And how could he not? It had a big sign on the door. Opening it Max slipped inside, leaving the door slightly ajar.

The room was… messy, for lack of better words… and big. Much bigger than first expected to be. In the middle of room, with only the headboard against a wall, a sprawled Tyson slept soundly on his bed. The cover was lying on the floor and it appeared that Tyson had forgotten to take off his gray socks before he went to bed. Besides that he only wore his boxers and his yellow t-shirt. Max walked over to the bed and shook him. "Hey, rise and shine sleepyhead." When he received no respond at all, he tried again, a little more powerfully this time. "Come on, Tyson. Wake up." This time Tyson groaned in his sleep and rolled around so that he was lying on his stomach. Max scrunched his nose in displeasure and started to slap Tyson lightly on his visible cheek to at least get some kind of reaction except snoring out of teen. Trying to unconsciously get away from the light abuse Tyson turned yet again in his sleep only to fall off the bed with a loud thump. It was quiet for a few moments before the snoring kept up with the race. "Oh, come on!" Max shot his arms in the air to gesticulate the frustration he felt. "This is unbelievable! How can someone sleep through that?" Bracing himself with the challenge ahead, he browsed the room in search for some fresh ideas or something that he could use to wake the sleepyhead. The cover couldn't be ripped away as it was already on the floor. Water would only leave things in a mess afterwards, so that was too out of question. But what else could he do? He heard the door creek open and twisted around. In the doorway Kai was standing with his arms crossed, an unreadable mask had plastered on his face.

"This is not what I told you to do." He stated accusingly.

"Rei told me he was going to meditate. I didn't want to disturb him then."

"Hn." Kai made to turn and walk out of the room but got stopped by Max' outburst.

"Kai! How do you wake him up?"

Kai snorted at him. "Try using a fire hose."

"You think? Would that really work?"

Kai saw no need to answer the questions and instead expanded his original order. "While I'm away it will be your responsibility to make sure the others behave."

Max nodded. "Sure thing. When will you be back?"

"Whenever I decide to."

"Uh, okay… have a nice day then and I guess I'll see you later." Max waved him goodbye with a big grin as Kai walked away leaving Max alone again with the still snoring bundle on the floor. He sloppily pushed up the sleeves of his t-shirt. "Okay Tyson. Now it's just you and me, so just bring it on."

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Kai shut the door behind him wearing a solemn face. He leaned against the door and ran a hand through his hair. That kid would be a real pain in the ass to get used to, he could already tell. Wasn't it enough that Mr. Dickenson had made him take care of the spoiled little brat that pestered him every day, and now he had to babysit yet another person. How superb. He pushed away from the door and went over to his shared room with Rei and walked in without bothering to knock. Inside he saw Rei meditating on his bed turned away from the door and reveling in the sunlight shining upon him through one of their windows. Kai closed the door behind him and walked over to lean against the window sill to shadow Rei from the sunrays. With the light suddenly gone Rei irritatingly opened his eyes finding hard crimson eyes staring him down. But if it was a wondering stare or a condemning one he couldn't tell. He then closed them again to continue the meditation, ignoring the Attacker until he would speak his mind. When Kai saw Rei beginning to disregard his presence he decided to speak up.

"How's the weather going to be tonight?"

Anyone who knew Kai knew that this question was very odd to hear coming from his mouth. But anyone who really knew Kai would find it odd if he didn't ask it. Considering the situation, how could he not. And Rei didn't blame him for being extra cautious. But he had to disappoint him. "You know, most wouldn't even consider disturbing me when I'm meditating. But you and Bryan are something else, aren't you." Rei untangled his legs and stared up at the ceiling. He could feel the burning impatience for contentiousness that told him to cut to the case drill through him, but somehow he just wasn't able to summon the energy to do little else then to try and filter away the noise hanging in the air. And it was going to get worse, it always did. He lay back on the bed putting his arms behind his head. "I'm no weather forecaster. If you want to know then why don't you go and check with your lovely news on the Television?."

"What does your instinct say?"

"That it's going to be one hell of a day."

Kai pushed away from the window. That's all he needed to know. "You're staying home today."

Rei jolted up straight. "Say wha-? Hell no! You are not going alone."

"I'll bring Tyson then, and he can bring Dragoon. But you're staying here. That's an order."

"Screw the orders, what can Tyson do against Biovolt, huh? Even if he got his sword he wouldn't be in the same league. Face it Kai. Yes, it's going to be a tough environment to make a stand in and yes, it will probably kill us both if things goes out of hand. But you can't seriously believe that I will just stay behind and watch you stride towards your own demise. We've been at this for years and I've been there with you from the very start. I will not let you push me away when we are finally beginning to get a glimpse of what might be the finishing line. We are in this together, whether you like it or not."

Kai's eyes widened as he stood there in shock. This was a first for him. In the 7 years that he had known Rei he had never yelled at him nor outright cast aside a direct order like that. Sure Rei had disagreed with him a lot of times and always told his opinion. But it had never been like this. Rei has always trusted Kai's judgment about what was needed to be done in order to succeed.

"Fine, you can come. I'm going to the library and will come home in time for dinner. Take good care of yourself until then. We'll need it." And with those words he left Rei alone to gloat his small victory and continue on with his well needed meditation.

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"Seriously Tyson, how the in the world can you sleep so heavily?" Tyson sat on his bed with his cover around his shoulders and followed Max' movements around the room. A big yawn escaped his throat before he could stop it and he slowly stood up to put on some clothes to start his day. Max' gaze wandered over the different things that littered the floor and walls in a try to better identify the person the room inhabited. What caught his attention was that even if the room was very messy there was one place that was still clean and tidy and very well taken care of. Upon a bureau stood a gorgeous sword on its stand and what hit him the most was that it almost seemed to radiate a strong sense of power. Or maybe not, Max wondered. At a second thought it didn't seem that forceful at all but it sure was shining with glory.

"He's a beauty, isn't he?"

Max turned around to see Tyson standing behind him fully clothed and ready for the day. Max had to smile as he recognized the fondness in the voice and looked back at the sword. He had to agree with Tyson, he just couldn't believe that he missed it when he first got in here.

"It's a real looker. What kind of a sword is it?"

Tyson looked proud at the comment the sword recieved. "Oh this is one of a kind alright. I've been training sword fighting ever since I can remember and never have I ever seen a more powerful sword than that."

"That's… wow. But really? How come?"

"He's thousands of years old, and he's been handed down from generation to generation through my family. You can really feel the energy he's gathered through the years. It's truly awesome!"

"Usually people refer their dear hobbies as a 'her', yet you say 'he'. Why is that?"

"Because Dragoon is not a girl." Tyson said with a big grin like it was the most obvious thing in the world and waiting for what he knew would come.

Max fully turned around and looked at him with big questioning eyes. "Dragoon?"

Okay, not the reaction he expected. "You… don't know? Oh man, of course you don't know. I keep forgetting, you're from another part of the world. You know, why don't we take this over a big and yummy breakfast, huh? I can't tell a good old myth on an empty stomach." As to amplify the statement Tyson's stomach growled loudly.

Max let out a laugh and nodded. They began to walk down to the kitchen. "Sure. Now that I think of it, I haven't had anything myself yet. The commotion this morning made me forget about breakfast completely."

Tyson stopped suddenly in the door opening to the kitchen making Max walk right into him and stumble backwards confusedly catching the looks of Tyson's baffled face. "…Commotion? What kind of commotion?"

"Well," Max unconsciously fidgeting with his fingers nervously. Why did he feel like he had said something wrong? "When I woke up I found Rei and Kai arguing over… something."

"They did? Those two? What were they fighting over?"

"Now I didn't say that they were fighting. They argued over whether Rei got to leave the house today or not. Kai didn't look very happy."

"Since when does Kai look happy?" They then entered the kitchen and Tyson went to look out of one of the two windows in there. "It's starting to get kind of cloudy. How bad was he? Rei I mean…"

Max sat down by the table and rested his head in his hands while watching Tyson setting the table. "Distracted to say the least. He was about to pour milk in the frying pan but Kai stopped him before anything happened."

"And I bet the look on Kai's face must have been priceless. How could I have missed that?"

"You were asleep, Tyson." Suddenly they heard the front door slam shut loudly and they both skipped a heartbeat. Max turned slowly to Tyson. "Does he usually do that?"

Tyson gave Max his attention. "What..? Who?"

"Kai."

"Slamming the door? No, actually, that is kind of odd. He must be in his sourpuss mode again. How do you know that it was him?"

"He told me that he was going somewhere today. And isn't it weird? Kai told me to keep an eye on both you and Rei."

Tyson's jaw dropped, feeling the insult hit him. "Really? He said that to you?" To Max' surprise Tyson slammed a hand to his face and started laugh a kind of creepy laugh that steadily grew louder. Suddenly it stopped. "He must be doing this on purpose. All to badmouth me when I won't be around to talk back." When Tyson then sat down and made himself some sandwiches he started to register the other part of what Max had said. "Why the hell did he leave Rei's care in your hands? Things must be really bad if he's going to put Rei's wellbeing in the hands of a stranger."

Max nodded for an answer. "Yeah, my thoughts exactly. But shouldn't he have left mine and Rei's responsibility in your care? He knows you so much better than I."

"Yeah, you would think so right? But he didn't."

Tyson gulfed down a sandwich and Max poured himself some cereals while chit-chatting about other small things instead as they knew they wouldn't get any more answers when the only person who knew them was out of the house and probably most unwilling to answer. When they had finished their breakfast they decided to move in to the living room instead. They saw through the only window in the room that it was beginning rain lightly outside and the day had taken on a gray tone. Tyson took a seat in the three seat sofa making himself comfortable while Max took the armchair. The blonde sighed lovingly and motioned towards his supposed-to-be Attacker. "Why don't you start telling me about that sword now Tyson? I've waited long enough."

Tyson shone up. "Oh yeah, I had forgot about that. You should listen real hard to this legend, because this one is good. Where I come from there is a very old legend about a great dragon that used to live in the skies and guard our sacred land. He was so great that the beats of his wings created the winds that blew through the air. One day a great and evil fire controlled by a strong sorcerer created havoc in the neighbouring countries, warning Dragoon of a danger that was yet to come. He was surprised of how fast this fire could spread and was too suddenly struck by its scolding heat. As the wind-creature Dragoon was he did what he was best at and used his powers against this big threat. But even if Dragoon's powers were astonishing so was this flame's. So instead of causing any harm to the fire the wind only seemed to feed the flames and make it stronger and more alive. In defeat Dragoon had to retreat to his close friend in another neighbouring country that hadn't had the misfortune to be targeted yet. This friend of his had the power to create water out of thin air and Dragoon, with his wind, would then be able to move that water around. So they decided to join forces and fight against the darkness that was roaming and conquering the lands. When the fire finally reached them they stood tall and were ready for any onslaught.

"The battle went on for seven days and seven nights and at the last dawn of the battle Dragoon's close friend in his weariness suffered a fatal blow and fell to the ground. Realizing that he wouldn't make it he used his last ounce of strength to seal away the power of the evil flame to leave the sorcerer all alone and died with that last heroic act. This gave Dragoon the advantage he needed and with an agonizing roar for his fallen companion he went for the killing blow that would extinguish the evil sorcerer for good. The attack hit square on but Dragoon noticed that his magic hadn't even touched the man. So the dragon tried again and again but all it did was to tire itself out. As Dragoon felt his powers coming to dry empty, he suddenly and unexpectedly hears someone arriving to the area from a distance. Tiredly he sees a wandering mortal, a samurai with a walkingstick, stumbling into the battlefield. With no options left Dragoon decided to try to make a deal with him. If the samurai promised to slay that evil man who had embodied the powers of the evil fire then Dragoon would give him the strongest sword to ever exist on earth. Hearing the price samurai agreed with the terms and Dragoon began to seal his own powers and himself inside the sword the samurai had carried with him. With this new sword and his own skills the samurai managed hold his end of the bargain and with the remaining day at hand he managed to kill the sorcerer off for good. The wandering samurai then continued his journey beyond the horizon with a new story to tell the world. As the time flew by the wandering samurai decided to settle down and got a family to which he, of course, told his tale of the two godly creatures that fought side by side and rescued the world from the evil flames that threatened to burn everything to darkness. As it is, the sword was never used again because of the hard-controlled power it contained and it is said that the sword is even now still guarded by the family of the samurai that helped save the world."

Max sat completely captivated in the armchair and had to shake his head to get back to reality. "Wow, Tyson, that was…" Tyson a grin pulled at the corner of his mouth and you could see the eagerness and impatience in his body language. Without warning Max began to laugh out loud. "Seriously, the greatest sword to ever exist?"

"Don't you start with that as well! Kai said the same damn thing. Come on dude, show some faith to your humble partner."

"But you said it never left the samurai's family."

"It didn't!" Tyson's grin widened as he saw Max began to add two and two together.

"It can't be! If that is true then you would be a living descendant to a great warrior."

"Exactly"

"Oh, that is so cool!"

Tyson's grin disappeared and he crossed his arms over his chest. "But then again, it's just a myth. And I have no way of telling if it is true or not."

"You know, this myth reminds me of something I heard when I was a kid." Max put a finger to his mouth and looked up in a try to remember the complete story of what he had heard. "I think it also was about some great fire that was about to devour our land." As the rest deluded him he sighed in defeat. "But I don't seem to remember."

"Ah, it doesn't matter, it will come back to you some day. I promise."

A low smattering signaled the start of small raindrops that began to fall more steadily against the window and Tyson and Max fell silent, just listening to the soothing sound. Tyson then put on the TV and started zapping between the channels while Max was still stuck deep in thought, still trying to remember the story he had heard many times as a kid. After some tries he gave up and began to think of the other event that had occurred so far today. What perplexed him the most was that he couldn't seem to grasp what exactly had happened earlier. "Tyson?" He spoke out loud. "What's wrong with Rei?"

Tyson dragged his eyes away from the television screen to eye Max skeptically. "What are you on about? Nothing's wrong with him."

Max raised his hands defensively. "No I didn't mean it like that. When I saw him in the kitchen he… Yesterday he told me that he didn't have any memories of his past and then today he said something about the rain… and I was just wondering, that's all"

"Oh, you mean that. No, that's normal. It's nothing to worry about. It happens every time it starts raining."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out already. But why?"

"Because he's not human." Tyson grinned.

Raising an eyebrow Max saw through Tyson's words. "And we are?"

"Hm, you got me there. He has this spirit inside of him that makes him more sensitive to the sound of rain. You should see when it's storming outside. Oh boy, that's a sight."

"He has a spirit inside him? How is that possible?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Oh and speaking about Rei, you think that we should check up on him? He was really gone this morning."

"Maybe you're right." Tyson said and stood up with Max following his example shortly afterwards. They began to together walk out of the living room and up the stairs again to get to Kai and Rei's shared room. Tyson stopped in front of the door pouting and muttering to himself, but talked loud enough so that Max could hear him. "I still don't get why he choose you."

Before Max could even attempt to reply to that comment Tyson opened the door and walked in to the room. Inside, silence hung in the air so thick that you could almost feel it. Max stopped in the middle of the room and spun around a turn to take the whole room in. It was the first time he had been in there and he got kind of disappointed. In contrast to Tyson's room this one didn't leave much of an impression at all. It was clean, but not overly clean, and what surprised Max the most was that they didn't seem to have any personal belongings here. He heard Tyson quietly call him over and walked over to the blunette who motioned him to look at the bed he was standing beside. Upon the covers was Rei lying on his back fast asleep. Tyson's eyes had been shining up and were stuck on the sleeping figure in front of them.

"Okay, this is interesting. I'll be the one to wake him up for a change." He was about to shake the sleeping body when he was stopped by a hand to his shoulder.

"Don't. Kai told me to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. Let him sleep, he needs it."

A big smile grew on Tyson's lips but his tone of voice revealed the underlying mischievousness. "Oh, but I can't miss out on an opportunity like this." As Tyson began to shake Rei the touch made Rei shot up his slit cat-like eyes. In a single movement he took hold of Tyson's arm and jerked him down on the bed as he himself moved away so Tyson wouldn't land on him. He turned Tyson around while moving to straddle the Attacker's stomach and then used one of the clawed hands to pin him down by the throat. The other arm Rei rose to strike down at the assailant but when he saw that it was just Tyson he stopped himself. He clenched his hand instead into a fist and hit it on the bed next to Tyson's head.

"For god's sake Tyson! I could have hurt you real bad. What were you even thinking? …Don't answer that. You weren't!"

"And good morning to you too, Rei."

Rei moved off Tyson and dusted off his clothes. The claws had retracted but his pupils were still slit as he gave Tyson a warning glare. "Next time, try to actually think before you act."

Tyson stood up as well and crossed his arms on his chest, puffing up his cheeks. "How the hell was I supposed to know that you would freak out on me like that, huh?"

"I wasn't freaking out… I think.. I was dreaming…" Looking out of the window his slit eyes became normal again and he started spaced out.

Max, who had been pushed to sit in the only other bed in the room, decided to jump in. "What were you dreaming about?" To Max' prediction Rei didn't answer so he walked over to him and nudged him on the shoulder. Rei spun around to face Max wondering what he wanted, so Max repeated the question and Rei sighed.

"I don't know… All I remember is a forest and something red but about that's it." A yawn forced its way out of Rei making him show his white sharp teeth and he stretched. "Now if you don't mind I would rather continue my sleeping." Next thing he did was to grab Tyson in the ear and Max in the collar to drag them across the room and throw them out of the door. "Now stay out!" And the door slammed shut.

Max and Tyson laid sprawled on the floor. They both quickly stood up to get out of the humiliating poses. Tyson started to complain out loudly to Max. "This is just fantastic. Come on Max, let's go somewhere else. Kitty's in a bad mood." When they were about to walk away the door behind them was kicked open revealing Rei standing tall and glaring them down. Tyson greeted that with a big smirk.

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It was late in the evening and the sun had left to make way for a fully light embraced moon. In the street lights trees and buildings were rushing by at a steady pace outside of the cab window as it was flooded with water from a heavy rain. Kai's eyes shifted back and forth as they followed the greenery in the grey atmosphere lazily from inside the car, but those things weren't the focus of his mixing thoughts. When he had gotten home from his little trip to the library he had found Rei keeping Tyson in a strong hold against the hallway floor near the living room while threatening Max with a remote control to dare make even a single movement to help Tyson. After having to pry Rei away from the others he had found out that it was indeed Tyson who had fired Rei up in the first place. It took him some time but after a while Kai finally got an explanation.

"_As well as I could manage with someone calling me Kitty-"_

"_You call that managing?" Tyson had expressed unbelievably. Rei gave a hard warning glare before he threw the remote he had still kept in his hand at Tyson. Unfortunately for him Tyson had reflexes so he had managed to duck in time. As the remote hit the wall behind Tyson into many pieces._

"_As I said, I could manage that you called me a kitty, but you damn well crossed the line when you decided to call me a maid."_

"_But it turned out okay anyway. And we're still very good friends, right Rei?"_

"_Sure Tyson. Of course we are. But friend or not. mock me like that again and I can't guarantee your safety."_

Kai had to give it to him. Tyson had the guts to rile up those stronger than him in order to get stronger himself. But that really wasn't the way to do it this time. Sure, after that fight his Weapon had been a little more present but because of that fight they had had to order out. And he did prefer Rei's cooking over junk food any day.

Kai became aware of the objects outside of the window that started to slow down to a stop and he glanced over to the left to take in Rei's form. Rei had his eyes closed and arms and legs crossed, looking like he was in deep thought or meditating. He hadn't even noticed that the cab had stopped in the first place. Kai sighed inaudibly and stepped out of the car into the rain to walk over and open the car door on the other side. "Give me one reason not to pay the driver to drive you home again." The rain hit Rei's side and Kai could see him flinch.

"Because you said that you wouldn't leave me behind." He stated simply. Kai snorted and forcefully threw the door close but Rei caught it before it slammed shut and stepped out of the car. Kai paid the taxi driver and the cab raced away leaving the two of them alone. They had arrived to a part of Moscow they didn't know all too well. It was a closed down school made of some buildings, they didn't know how many. They walked pass the main building and arrived to a schoolyard that was surrounded with five brick buildings that created a wall around the yard.

This was it.

"So you finally decided to show up?" Tala's mocking voice thundered throughout the area and welcomed Kai and Rei as they entered through the pathway. The rain seemed to increase in intensity and poured down even harder than before to completely drenching everything that wasn't covering under shelter. This day was not turning out well at all and Kai was starting to regret coming here. But he wouldn't falter, he had to do this. He owed them his best and he was going to help them get their minds straight again. Looking back at Rei he saw -or more correctly, felt- Rei trying to concentrate to his best capacity. And he actually succeeded to seem unaffected too, but somehow his focus dangled just out of his reach. Kai looked back over to his childhood friends now standing before them with viciousness colouring their very beings. Bryan's chuckle echoed shortly afterwards to follow up his partners mocking.

"Never knew you were such a suck-up Kai. Your eyes tell me you're actually glad to see us. Your so called friends are making you soft."

"-What do you want?" Tala injected and stared hardly at his friend. Cool blue met deep expressionless crimson.

"Why did you leave?" Kai monotonously asked while mentally preparing himself to get disappointed and got surprised as he heard Tala's laughter beam up the room. And it wasn't a nice laugh either.

"Why we left? That's what you wanted to ask? Get a grip Kai. Why else would we leave if not for power?" Lifting his hand Tala inspected it as if seeing something that the others couldn't. "He promised and we received."

"-And you didn't join us. That would make you the antagonist of this sad little fairy tale" Bryan cut in while grinning maliciously at Rei. He finally would be able to bring that little bastard down once and for all.

Kai then felt the temperature around him decrease drastically to a chilly level and he could see his breath condensate in the moist and heavy air in front of him. It made him itchy. What he wouldn't give to be able to pound some sense into those thick skulls of theirs.

Without knowing it, Kai had begun to unconsciously release Rei's power in his eagerness to bring them back. So without warning Rei cried out and began to charge against the opposing pair, startling Kai out of his inner musings. Rei increased his speed to emerge in the air behind Bryan with a fist raised to strike him with a back swing to the head but Bryan simply moved a step forward making Rei miss. Rei crouched down to swing his leg low towards Bryan's feet but Bryan back flipped over Rei putting his hand on Rei's head for fake support and landed behind him, lowering his hand to Rei's neck pinning him in place. That malicious grin was still plastered upon Bryan's face.

"That can't be all you got. You used to be faster than that." His face shone as the realization sunk in. Could Boris actually have made them stronger than he thought? "Come on Tiger, Give me your best try." Rei winced at the extra pressure on his neck and quickly kicked Bryan in the stomach with both legs, using one of his hands as support on the ground, pushing Bryan back making him release his grip on Rei. As Rei stood up and turned around Bryan punched him in the face sending him flying all the way to where he started, to where Kai was standing.

Kai had watched the display while paralyzed by the sudden charge but as Rei landed on the ground diagonally in front of him he started to become aware of his surroundings once more and got his mobility back in control. The chill in the air didn't help his bodily stiffness and he knew that this was going to make this battle so much harder than it normally would be. This setting just wasn't in their favor. Was it even natural for the temperature to drop this low in such a short period of time? He returned his attention to Tala who was watching this show with an amusement that wasn't supposed to be there. He knew Tala well enough to know that. And by observing the situation Kai began to realize that if they wanted to have a chance of success they would have to go all out straight away as a surprise attack.

"Rei, Get up. This is very serious. I need you to release my seal."

Rei stood up wobbly and wiped some blood away from his mouth before he turned towards Kai and actually started to register Kai's words. "…What? But Kai I can't do that! I promised not to. Don't you remember-"

"I don't care!" Kai hissed back in a tight voice. "I'm ending that deal. The odds aren't exactly with us here."

Rei pondered on the facts. "I see your point. But even so, if I do as you say here it won't do us much good anyway. Rain isn't the weather for our benefits."

"I know, that's the reason we need to go all out. We need to end this fast. What do you think Tyson would say if we didn't get home?" A small smile appeared on Kai's lips but it quickly disappeared again. "Rei, we need to cooperate here. I'm letting you go all the way."

Rei froze. "All the way? But… do we really have to?" Kai gave him a flat stare that told Rei not to argue. He sighed in defeat. "At least wait with that last stage until there is no other choice."

In the meanwhile Tala and Bryan had stood waiting for them to come up with a plan and was getting rather impatient. It wouldn't be fun to beat them if they weren't ready. That would take the whole point of this battle away. Tala was standing with his arms crossed and his foot tapping the ground. "Are you two done soon? I want to get back before the sun rise." He saw Kai and Rei turning their focus toward him. "Good. Now how do you like my new ability? I don't even need Bryan's help to use it."

"So you are the one lowering the temperature around here. Hn, I should have known." Kai said with a scoff. Rei's eyes widened in a sudden curiosity and a slight hope.

"How?"

"Let's just say that you aren't the only one who is special anymore, Rei."

"Are we going to start this anytime soon? I'm getting bored here with your useless chatting. What are you, old ladies?" Bryan shot in with no regard for the edge in his voice.

Rei smirked as he started to gather enough energy to release Kai's powers. "Have it your way then."

Immediately Kai exploded with fire and the flames started to form a circle of fire around both Tala and Bryan blocking them from seeing further than that ring. The heavy rain drops that fell from the sky began to hiss at the heat and evaporate as Tala and Bryan both sunk down into a defensive stance and moved to stand back to back. The fire seemed to sparkle green at different points at different times and they both began to look around themselves to cover their sighted area. Out of nowhere a green gestalt stormed out of the fire and hit Bryan to the side which sent him down to the ground and it disappeared in to the fire again. Where the green blur had vanished in front of Tala he saw Kai appear and wasn't prepared for the punch he received in the stomach that made him land upon Bryan. Tala rolled backwards and stood up again as Bryan pulled himself up too so they were facing the same direction. Behind Tala Kai appeared once more out of the flames but this time Bryan wasn't down and felt the disturbance in the wind. He swung a hit behind him towards his partner and Tala with his fast reflexes managed to duck in time. The punch hit Kai straight in the chest and he fell backwards where a green power leaking Rei was ready to catch him. When he was steady Rei made him bend forward so he could jump up to stand on Kai's back and take a leap out over Tala. On the way down he grabbed hold of Bryans face and slammed him down to the ground with him only to disappear in to the fire again. Tala quickly stood up and took a hold of Kai's neck where he stood bent forward and tugged him down on the ground. He then quickly took a seat on Kai's back and secured his arms in a lock. Tala felt the urge to smile at the advantage he had but resisted it. And to his surprise, Kai stayed in place beneath him.

"Rei!" Kai instead yelled out loud into the air. "I need more!" As on queue Tala felt Kai himself heat up and he involuntarily let go of Kai's arms as he had to jump off Kai to get away from the scolding heat. When Kai stood up as well he began to radiate a red colour and his very being dried off the rain that landed on him. He snickered. "Let's see who'll win this Tala… you with your coldness or me and my fire."

In return Tala lowered his head but Kai didn't leave his view. "And the winner walks out of here alive, I get it. And I accept the challenge. Bryan! Keep the nuisance away from us."

Next to them Bryan was lying on the pavement on his back with his eyes closed. He had had troubles opening them due to the heavy raindrops that landed on his face. Steadily his rising laugh broke through the thick atmosphere. Sitting up he rested an arm on his knee and locked eyes with Tala who was still looking untrustingly at Kai. Bryan couldn't help but to grin widely.

"Now, that's more like it." He stood up dusting of his drenched legs. "Finally I get to counter attack that sneaky little bastard for real. Give me my power Tala!"

"Already one step ahead of you Bryan. Now work your magic and catch that tiger." Tala then gave all his attention to the blunette in front of him. Around them the wind gathered to pick up a decent speed and was moving about in harsh patterns as the temperature in the air dropped even further to where the raindrops began to feel like liquid ice. The flames around them flickered in a desperate attempt to stay alive before slowly getting blown out by the combined force of the cold rain and wind and it revealed the empty moonlit schoolyard they stood in. Tala made the first move and attacked Kai head on with a hard kick to the side. The still red glowing Kai raised his arms to block it and glided away a bit by the force. He took hold of the leg and spun Tala around to throw him down into the pavement.

"Where are you, Rei?" Bryan said mockingly out in the air and smirked maliciously. He searched the roofs and dark shadowed corners for Rei but couldn't find him. Bryan berated himself, how hard could it be to find a green power leaking freak? Hearing something hit the ground he snapped his head in that direction and when he saw that it was Tala who was down he unconsciously took a few steps forward to reach out and help his partner. But he stopped in his tracks as he registered a sparkling sound from the thickly clustered clouds above and looked up in time to get struck by a big green bolt of lightning. Smoking slightly, he fell down to ground and when he gathered his wits he rolled as quickly as possible to the side. As expected, Rei had jumped out from his hiding place to body tackle Bryan while he was lying down but missed to make a small crater in the pavement instead. Bryan threw himself up and simultaneously placed a well aimed kick to Rei's stomach that made him fly backwards and accidently hit Tala as he was about to send another kick in Kai's direction.

Kicking Rei off him Tala stood up and took a hold of Rei's shoulders to kick him in the back. It sent him straight into Kai who easily caught him and steadied him. On his way up Tala had grabbed a small stone from the pavement and now threw it at Bryan in annoyance. "Didn't I tell you to keep the nuisance _away_?" He walked up to stand in front of Bryan. Even if Tala were smaller built, he still stood proudly and seemingly looking down at Bryan.

The stone had hit Bryan's right eyebrow and it started to bleed. A hand went up to press the wound to stop it from letting blood in to his eye. "My mistake Tala. Won't happen again."

Kai let go of Rei when he knew that he could stand on his own. "Don't you usually keep an eye on your surroundings?"

Rei shook his head and glared at the insult thrown at him. "Yeah, I do. But Bryan doesn't. When will you learn that?" The voice was shaking and Kai could visibly see that the drenched Rei was freezing. disappeared

"Hn," And he didn't care. Kai leered over to where Bryan and Tala were bickering with each other. "While you're here, give me more power."

"I have given you enough." Rei argued but Kai stomped his complains.

"My flames get killed by his chilling aura combined with the heavy rainfall. I need more." Hearing a sigh from his partner Kai knew he had won.

"I get it. But I don't know how much more I have to give." Then Rei disappeared in front of Kai's eyes and Kai felt the triumph swallow him.

As Kai and Rei had taken their time to talk, Bryan and Tala had come to an agreement. When Rei vanished from their sight Bryan distanced himself from his Attacker by stepping forward, keeping Tala securely behind him, and used his hands to guide the wind to circle him. Then he just waited. Waited for what he knew would happen and Rei wouldn't be able to keep hidden for much longer. He prided too much in his speed to wait for someone else to attack. Out of the corner of his eye Bryan saw a green sparkle and he quickly sent his wind in that direction. When he hit something he smirked and made the wind circle the target instead. Realizing all too late that he had been caught Rei could do little else than to stop and try not to move. His green leaking power got cut by the mere air itself before it merged up only to be cut again by the same wind. He was trapped.

Bryan began to laugh out loud. "Did you really fall for the same trick again Rei?" He took step after step closing in on Rei. "Don't they say that you should learn by your mistakes?" He faltered on his stride but quickly straightened his posture.

Rei smirked at Bryan. As Bryan had said, he had got stuck in this situation before, and he had gotten out of it as well. It would be interesting to see if he could do it again. When Bryan saw Rei's smirk his eye twitched and let Rei feel the consequence of it. Rei winced as the air cut his left cheek and his right thigh at the same time. Stopping mockingly close to Rei, Bryan began to tease him but he stayed far enough away in case Rei would screw the pain and attack him anyway. The smug smile never faded from Bryan's face.

"What's wrong Bryan? Don't you dare come here and face me like a man?"

"Nah, I'm more like a man who wouldn't come too close to a newly caught prey. And like that man, I'm waiting for the beast to tire himself out so that I can toy with him later."

"Yeah, you wish." Rei couldn't help his shaky voice that showed traces of exhaustion. "We both know that we are both too tired for those kinds of games anyway." The air shut him up as it cut him again on several more places all over his body.

"You might be correct about that, but you should look at your own position first. I'm not the caged animal here."

"That would be bad, wouldn't it? Lucky me I'm not an animal than." Rei gave Bryan a big smirk and disappeared again in front of Bryan's eyes. He quickly fazed back behind Bryan whispering in his ear. "What was it you said about mistakes, hm?"

Bryan ducked as Rei made a back swing aimed at his exposed neck so that Rei missed the intended target. Bryan then shot up again head-butting Rei's chin making Rei fly back and fall on his back and bounce backwards over to lie on his stomach. Glancing back Bryan lifted an eyebrow at Rei. "That you should learn from them."

This time though, Rei stayed down.

.

Meanwhile, As Bryan took off towards Rei, Tala was the one to walk over to Kai and they mutually decided to take a short break as they both had to catch their breaths for a short while. As Tala stopped in front of him Kai crossed his arms over his chest and they reached back to the days before Tala and Bryan had taken off. At least Kai did. Tala tapped his foot in impatience and glared hardly at Kai. "Spit it out before I get bored."

"Why did you leave?"

"Are you deaf? I already told you-"

"-The real reason this time."

Tala paused. It was as if he didn't know how to answer that question. Kai smiled inwardly and felt very content with what he got. But quickly Tala spoke up again to cover his waver. "There is no other reason-"

Not wanting any more excuses Kai made a punch forward which Tala had to use his reflexes to catch and he caught it with both his hands. Kai with one hand free used it to actually hit Tala straight in the face this time sending him backwards. As Tala had Kai's wrist in a tight grip he tugged Kai down with him and they fell down together. Kai put a knee threateningly to Tala's Solar Plexus and took Tala's throat in a strangling tight hold. Feeling Kai's hand around his throat heat up to an unbearable degree Tala panicked and let go of the wrist to find a way to pry Kai off him. Then he noticed that it wasn't just the hand that got unbearable. It was whole Kai. Compared to before when Kai's very skin glowed red, now he was alit with a red raw power and the flames of that power radiated a scolding heat, heating the air around him. On the brink of fainting due to oxygen loss someone pushed Kai off Tala and dragged Tala in the collar along the ground away from Kai. Kai stumbled backwards and tripped on something that was on the ground. Raising himself up, Kai noticed that the thing lying on the ground was his own Weapon.

There Rei was trying to push his own body up to continue to fight. When Kai looked down upon Rei he could see Rei's wavering attention. "I still need more." The scolding voice hit Rei's ears as coldly as the rain that fell from the sky and he met Kai's glowing, power-greedy eyes from where he was sitting. Rei glanced across the yard to observe Tala and Bryan making ready to give their all in one last clash and swallowed loudly.

"I cannot do that Kai. I don't have much strength left."

Kai dragged Rei up by his collar. "Do your job as my Weapon and give me my power. Then I'll give you yours and it will be a fair trade."

Rei's eyes widened. "Are you trying to kill me again?"

"You're saying you can't handle it?" The tone was simple, and yet so very condemning.

And not sure if he actually could handle it Rei became dead serious, but what choice did he have? "…No, I'm not." Giving Kai the last energy he could give Rei felt Kai too letting him go all the way. His normally leaking green power thickly changed to form a Tiger around Rei and Rei stood up on all fours. He growled and showed his razor sharp fangs while his nails hardened. They saw Bryan release what appeared to be a big white, blue shining, falcon that rose up high in the air and every beat of its wings made strong gusts of wind that plowed the things that got in its way. As Rei started to run he vanished with a lightning flash and a fire soaked Kai directly ran to Tala to charge an attack. Even the hard wind of the storm couldn't extinguish Kai's newly made fire and the rain evaporated even before the drops hit Kai's skin. Coming forth to Tala he centered his power and flames to his fist and hit Tala right on the cheek. Kai didn't wait and made a fire filled side kick to Tala's side which he caught head on and flew down to the ground.

As he quickly heaved himself up again Tala noticed that the fire that hit him started to spread all over him and he yelled out Bryan's name. The said one made his falcon make strong beats with its wings and the fire on Tala blew out slowly. While the fire blew out he counter kicked Kai away from him and sent him flying to where he started his run.

Rei emerged behind Bryan and used his lightning infused clawed nails to scratch Bryan along the back. Bryan clenched his teeth at the pain and as quickly as possible turned around to give a punch to the person behind him. But he only hit the air as Rei had already disappeared and Bryan turned back again. With a cry the falcon in the sky dove down to protect its master and clenched its clawed feet in the air in front of Bryan. A pained roar broke out in the night and in the falcon's grip was Rei. Its claws had pierced Rei's either shoulders and made deep holes in through his muscles. Rei who didn't give up saw his chance to attack and let Falcon get electrocuted by green high voltage lightning bolts that fried the bird like a chicken and it retreated back into Bryan. Blood spilled out on Rei's already stained white shirt but he didn't even notice it at the moment. In a last attempt to get the enemy down he screwed the speed he had and put all his strength in to one last punch that hit Bryan squarely in the head and made him fly into the nearest surrounding building, breaking the wall. As Bryan didn't get out of the small cavern created, Rei let out a breath and while holding onto his bleeding shoulders he stumbled backwards a few feet. He looked up into the sky feeling the raindrops fall on his face and he praised the lord that he made it out okay. His green tiger formed aura disappeared and he weakly closed his eyes.

Suddenly Kai flew in to Rei startling him and making him strain his body to not fall again and steadied Kai where he was. Kai broke free from Rei and instinctively stood in front of Rei to protect him from any more assaults. The last effort had taken the last out of Rei and he fell forward to the ground, unconscious.

Breathing a little heavily Kai stopped up to look around himself to assess the situation. His flames around him were gone and he was soon as drenched as the other three. Behind him Rei was lying unmoving in the gathering of water on the ground and just out of his reach. In front of him to his right Bryan was lying inside the wall, unconscious and in front of him to the left Tala was standing tall and seemingly unmoved by the battle. But his ice blue eyes spoke out louder than his actions. Both Tala and Kai knew better than to believe that Tala was anything but worn out.

"If you think that this is over then you got it all wrong. Next time we'll see each other, we'll settle this for good." Tala's eccentric voice almost seemed repressed in the falling rain and windy weather. Kai's hard glare made him shift uncomfortably before he turned around to walk away.

Kai looked through his dripping wet fringe that clung to his face. "Why don't you just kill us and get over with it?"

Tala stopped at the low but threatening voice. "Tsk, and what would be the fun in that? Besides, orders are orders and I don't have the strength to carry the three of you back to the Abbey all by myself." His head snapped to Bryan as if just remembering that he even had a partner and he sighed bitterly. "I will have to leave you two for now. Be sure that I will come back." He stumbled over to Bryan and kneeled down to be able put Bryan's arm around his shoulders and start carrying him away, but in sudden realization of his weakened state he collapsed under Bryan's weight. Swearing at the fact that he let himself fall to this state he used what little extra strength he had to push Bryan up along with him and slowly he and the unconscious Bryan made it through one of the pathways between the buildings and out of the schoolyard.

Kai's eyes hadn't left Tala's movements for even one second as he witnessed them leave. When they finally got out of his sight he immediately fell to the ground breathing even heavier. He crawled over to Rei and saw the big puddle of red that mixed with the water beneath him. Seeing that Rei's white shirt was trashed with holes and stained with red all over he felt the pang of guilt hit him hard and he placed his forehead on Rei's back, gripping hold of Rei's wrapped tail of hair. Surprisingly it wasn't torn off like it usually was by Bryan's sharp winds.

"Sorry Rei… I'm so sorry…" Kai said between ragged breaths and pushed himself off Rei. Not having the energy to sit up he fell backwards so that he was lying on his back on the ground next to his Weapon. Eyeing the steadily falling raindrops that the sky seemed to cry, Kai took a few deep breaths. Then everything slowly faded in to black.

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**A/N:** And that was chapter 4. Oh, there is so much thought put behind this chapter (/story) that I'm exhausted, really. And do you know how annoying it is to write down and keep track of four people in a fighting scene? They tend to split up. What _ever_ have I dragged myself into? Blergh. Never mind, I guess it will have to do. If the battle was messy then give me a heads up and I will try to make it better next time around, but as it is. I'm actually happy with the outcome. It's my first written fighting scene, if you don't count the little mess I wrote in the first chapter.

Until next time!

/Bonnie


	6. Chapter 5

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word count:** 7494 words

**Disclaimer: **Still not back from the hospital Bryan sent me to. So any other futile attempt at *cough* borrowing anything will have to wait. The hospital personnel weren't easily fooled either… Darn…

**A/N: **Fi-na-lly! I'm so tired of this chapter that I don't know what to do! This was the first piece I ever wrote to this fanfiction, which means that the facts I wrote down at the time isn't correct anymore and I had to rewrite it completely and come up with new facts to tell and at the same time try to keep the plot rather the same. About 3000 words became close to 6000 instead! But it's better now, has more flow to it, so I shouldn't complain too much. I really hope you like it.

A warning, this hasn't been beta-read. So mistakes might occur.

And also a big thank you to **AxelsDancingFlames,** Katmonty, ** Mazeem,** PandaPjays, **Crimson Breeze,** Desastrus, **Panicchannel,** Iluvbeyblade, **Yume no Anime **and Thegoldenlock for giving me your support during these few chapters! It means the world to me. And also a special Thanks you to Yume no Anime for sending me that picture. I love it to bits! I have it as me cellphone background ^.^ And you are correct. It does remind me of the last fight :)

Anyway, on with the new and late chapter.

Enjoy!

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**-*-.-*-Chapter 5-*-.-*-**

Back home at their sanctuary, Max was sitting on the windowsill in the living room and was locked up in his own world. The blue eyes were watching the hard rain shower the window clean with water and creating irregular patterns across the glass. His sincere mood reflected in his posture and his thoughts were going back and forth between the matters that were distressingly stuck in his mind. Back in the house he could hear the sounds of Tyson moving about but Max didn't put any attention to it. It wasn't until he felt Tyson attack him from behind with a hug that he let the whirlwind of thoughts leave his mind.

"What's up Maxie? You don't look so great."

Max hugged Tyson back and then released the hold to let his arms lie on his legs. "Hi, Do you think the others will be alright?"

"Nah, they'll be alright. Why don't you loosen up a bit?"

"Something just feels wrong Tyson. I can't put my finger on it."

Letting go of Max Tyson leaned on the sill to watch out of the window as well. "Don't worry so much. You'll see. Any minute now they'll be walking through the front door and start complaining about their miserably failed attempt to get their friends back like all the other days they have been unsuccessful."

Max turned his head and looked disbelievingly at the other. "What a friend you are Tyson. It seemed like they were going to meet them today so shouldn't you have a little more faith in them than that?"

And Tyson grinned widely back. "Exactly! You got the right way of thinking."

Blinking a few times Max saw his mistake and then shone up and started to giggle. "Ah, walked straight into that one."

They both smiled to each other and Tyson saw Max slowly relax. "Why don't you tell me about them?"

Eyebrows hit the roof as Max blinked. "About who?"

"Your family… Who were they?"

Max then shrugged. "What is there to say about them? We are… well, were a normal family. Mom and Dad tried to bring us up in the best way they could and my little brother's favourite thing in the world was to annoy the hell out of me."

"Any other siblings?" Max simply shook his head in answer and Tyson's mind started to wander off. "Oh I wish I had a little brother instead of that know-it-all big brother I have. What is it like, having a little brother?"

A small but sad laugh escaped Max' lips while he discreetly hugged himself. "He's a little devil. Always out to get me and playing the nice guy in front of our parents." He smiled softly. "You know that kind of brother. And my dad was always on his side too."

"Then you had your mother on your side at least, right?"

"I don't know. She was travelling a lot and wouldn't stay home for very long. When she got home she was really nice and gave us souvenirs and everything. But you know, my dad and I had the most wonderful moments that I can remember! We used to build boats together and go out fishing on them and play games and..." Max' speech came to a halt as the realization hit him hard. Those moments would not come again. They were forever gone… He shook his head to get rid of those negative thoughts. They would not do any good for him. Or for Tyson for that matter. He wouldn't bring Tyson into this. "…and they were really really good people, Tyson. I wish you could have met them."

"I wish I could meet them too-"

Suddenly they heard the front door burst open and they both visibly jumped by the unexpected noise. They both ventured to the door way to see Kai striding the hallway with an unconscious, deathly pale, Rei on his back. They were both soaked from head to toe 'cause of the heavy rain that still fell outside the still open front door and the wind blew hard and loudly making the door slam shut again. Max was frozen in shock and Tyson took the liberty to freak out. "Kai! What happened?"

"You have to make your own evening snack today. Rei's out for the moment."

Tyson stared disbelievingly at Kai. "Like I care about something so trivial when I see him like that. Tell me what happ-"

"We'll be in our room. Disturb and you will regret it." And with that said Kai left Tyson and a gaping Max behind and walked up the stairs. Max finally found his voice.

"Tyson, what's going on?" He couldn't believe his eyes. Was that just… wait… Wait! There was blood! And Kai was injured! How come they hadn't notice that? "Tyson! Wasn't he limping?"

"Probably…"

"What's with the lack of reaction? They're hurt! Are they going to be-?"

"Max!" The blonde jolted to a halt and his widened eyes locked on his partner with a deer-caught-in-headlight stare. "There's nothing we can do." Tyson to continued and gritted his teeth as he looked away with guilt. "At least they got home."

Max shook his head and gripped hold of Tyson's shoulders. "But there was blood Tyson, Blood! Shouldn't Kai have taken Rei to a hospital where there are doctors that can help them both rather than to walk back home?"

"Do you really think that Kai would trust a stranger?" Shaking his head Tyson broke free from Max' hold and walked into the kitchen to start roaming the fridge, Max anxiously tailing him.

"But Rei is unconscious… and Kai… He's hurt too. This doesn't make any sense. There must be something we can do. Anything."

"Look, Kai takes care of himself. If he needs something then he'll know where to find us." Tyson closed the fridge and smiled reassuringly at Max and winked. "So what do you say about fixing something for him to replenish his reserves, hm? Then Kai will have to eat and talk or I'll make him."

At the thought of actually having something to do to help Max beamed up. "Yes, you are right. Of course you are. Kai can take care of himself. So, what are we going to make?"

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Kai closed the door to their shared room with his foot and strode over to put Rei in his bed. Sitting down next to him on the side of the bed the blood red eyes locked on the unconscious face. Guilt continued to wash over him like the rain that poured outside. This fight didn't turn out well at all but he admitted that it could have ended in a much worse way than it did. If it wasn't for Rei and his ability than they most certain wouldn't be here right now… If it wasn't for Rei than he would probably still have been inside the Abbey and still been oblivious to what was going on there. What if he hadn't been convinced to join Voltaire on his trip to China those years ago? Then Rei would never have run into him, running away from those monsters. Kai dreaded the thought that that tiny, easily changeable, little decision made the rest of his life possible. It almost, note the _almost_, made him believe in fate. Fate and destiny decided to neglect him most of the time so it just couldn't be and he didn't like to think that everything that happened up till know was predestined. He wanted to control his own future.

Shaking his musings out of his head he started to take Rei's shirt off. The body was full of small cuts here and there that were both big and small, but they weren't too bad. Finally he put some attention to the big hole in his shoulder. That nasty wound was going to be a bother to take care of. It was huge. Obviously it would need stitches. Kai sighed, at least it wasn't still bleeding. He ventured out to fetch some medical supplies from the toilet and began cleaning the wounds. Normally when Rei was hurt they could see green glimmering magic slowly working through the wound. But now something was blocking the healing process. Or more correctly, it was as if he wasn't healing at all. But he guessed that's why he was there. Attackers should take care of their Weapon, theoretically speaking.

When he was finished dressing the wounds and was putting on the royal red t-shirt Rei usually slept in he heard the door creak open. Of course he didn't have the patience to wait. And who else could it be? The new kid didn't have the guts to disturb. "What are you doing here Tyson?"

"How is he?"

"Unconscious of course. Not hurt too badly if treated directly." _…and with that knowledge he's going to tend to me, _Kai thought to himself not looking away from his working hands.

"So he will make it. That's a relief…" Tyson spoke to himself before turning to Kai. "We made you some food. You look like you could need something to eat."

"…" _Then there will be nagging…_

A vein became visible at the side of Tyson's forehead. "You really need to take better care of yourself! What will Rei say if he wakes up and you'll be half dead?"

"…" … _Some whining…_

"Don't ignore me, Kai! This is serious business. What if you died?"

Kai rolled his eyes. "I'm fine." _...More nagging…_

"You're bleeding man! I don't understand you… sometimes you act like you wouldn't even care if the world ended!"

"It's not my blood. I told you. I'm fine." _... and then he gets tired of me, wants to change the subject and mixes that with the want to know what happened…_

"Sure sourpuss, if you say so. Don't bite my head off. But seriously, what really happened out there?"

…_Heh, predictable…_ Kai swept a hand in Tyson's direction, still not looking at him. "Leave, I don't have time for you."

Puffing his cheeks Tyson stood his ground. "Tell me what happened and I'll leave."

"…"

He threw his hands in the air in frustration. "Fine! Have it your way, but I want answers later!" Tyson disappeared out of the door and came back with a tray of what smelled like soup. He put it down next to Kai, tenderness entered his voice as he spoke. "You really should eat it. You made us worried, especially Max. And he put his heart into making this food. I know that even you aren't that coldhearted." With that said, Tyson left Kai alone.

.

While waiting for Tyson to descend those stairs and tell him the news Max was sitting in the living room zapping between TV channels in lack of anything else to do. He had a hard time comprehending that Kai and Rei could even get beat up. Sure he didn't know them all that well but they seemed very strong and they seemed to know what they were doing. And Rei was like a mentor for him. When he first saw Rei he had said that they were the same and Max kept those words close to heart. He needed them right know, needed some proximity to someone other than through magic. Behind him Max heard the steps he was waiting for and soon Tyson entered the room and sat down next to Max But he didn't say anything, not one sound, and Max couldn't have it that way. He had to know.

"How are they?"

Tyson shifted in his seat and sighed audibly. "Could have been better, but they'll come around. Rei hasn't woken up yet but at least he isn't in any mortal danger and that's good to know. Kai… well, Kai is Kai. He probably got a scratch somewhere we can't see and it's probably deep too but he would rather dress as a girl before admitting that. And we both know that will never happen."

"Kai was bloody Tyson, something must be wrong."

"The blood wasn't his. At least he told me it wasn't and I believe him." Tyson turned his head to Max and gave him a strained smile. Max could see that Tyson was trying to cheer him up and for that gesture Max was grateful. But before he could show his appreciation Tyson snorted through his nose as a strained laugh and spoke out again. "You know, this is a first for me. Last time this happened I wasn't even around. I've heard stories from Tala about the danger of going too far but never realized that I would see the day come when it happened."

"Is it really that bad?" Max said sceptically as he rose an eyebrow.

And Tyson shrugged in response. "I don't know. Kai shooed me out before I could get any clear answers. But he'll tell the details, I'll make sure of it." It grew quiet again as they both disappeared into their own thoughts. Max thought hard on the feelings he experienced when he had found out that the others had got hurt. It felt as if he had known them all for months but he had yet to have known them for 2 full days. It wasn't normal and he basically knew nothing about this family. Tyson he had got some grasp around but he still didn't know of the details that made Tyson become Tyson.

Suddenly something ignited inside Tyson's head and he shifted to bodily face the blonde. "Ey, Max?"

The blonde was pulled out of his inner pondering, not even realizing that he had fallen that deep into his own thoughts. "…Yes, I'm listening."

"Are you any good at mischief?" Big dark sapphire eyes locked on Max almost condemningly as if this answer would conclude Max' worth. Of what Max couldn't say.

But he let out a giggle at the behaviour. "Can't say I'm a grand master, but surely little ol' Max here do have some tricks up his sleeves."

Apparently deciding that it was the correct answer, Tyson shone up. "Oh, Grand Master. What do you say about making a prank on a special someone, our beloved Russian called Kai? It's always fun to find different ways to make him turn different colours." A grin grew wide on his face with excitement. "Believe me, dude. It's hard. His face's hard as stone. But it's not impossible. Once I managed to make him reeeally angry at me by dropping an open barbeque sauce bottle on his favourite shirt."

Max gasped dramatically, making sure it sounded exaggerated. "Oh no…"

"Oh yes. And dude, it was all an accident too."

Not being able to keep his face up Max started to laugh out. "Oh I wish I could have seen the look on his face. It must have been hilarious."

"It wasn't pretty, that's for sure. Especially when you're on the receiving end of that outburst. Luckily for me, Rei was there to stop him from snatching my neck."

Max calmed down his laughing and wiped his eyes. "Seems like Rei is a handy man."

"Yeah. He's the only one I know that can calm Kai down if enraged… if holding him down and coax him to change his mind counts as calming him down…" Tyson's eyes glazed over as if reliving that said memory and he shivered. Let's just say that he didn't want to experience that moment again. He shook his head. "Back to the original point of this conversation, I really need help with new ideas. Mr. Sourpuss needs to step down from that high horse of his and lighten up a little. Have anything that could help an old pal?"

"Old pal..? Tyson, we've known each other for 2 days."

"That may be, but the intention is the same…" Shifting in his seat so that he sits on his knees Tyson began jumping up and down in anticipation. "Come on!... I'm all out of any juicy stuff. His High-and-Mighty need a good prank to get that stone face of his to move."

"Tyson, I heard that." The pair on the sofa turned around to see Kai leaning on the door frame and holding a white towel in his hand.

"And that would change things how? You already know that I'm always out to get you caught in surprise."

Kai snorted in a contained laugh. "Yeah, right. The day that will happen is the day when I become Santa Claus."

And Tyson rolled his eyes. "Oh look at that, Kai actually has a sense of humour."

"Guys…" Holding up his hands Max tried to quiet them down as their voices grew louder. But they didn't listen.

"Look, I don't have time for you and your silly games. Just go back to the sandbox you just came from Tyson and stay there till you grow up."

"I might not be all grown up, but I do have feelings unlike you."

"Guys!" Max shouted out at the top of his lungs and they both stopped in their tracks to glare at the sudden interruption. Max swallowed loudly, though he was determined. "Could you please just stop fighting before it escalates further? There are other things that matter more right know. Kai, Could you please just tell us what happened?"

Kai's eyes was burning cold as they shot Tyson the coldest stare they could manage, but something seemed to dim the strength of that glare. Then he quickly turned away from Tyson to address the Blondie. "No."

But the sword wielder just had to butt in anyway. He just wouldn't lose this. "Chill out, man. That's not very nice to say to a new made friend Kai." Some part of Tyson knew that he was pushing too far now but that voice got overruled by his pride to win this.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Since when did he and I become friends?"

"Don't be such an asshole. Talk now that you are down here. I'm not going to let this slide."

Losing his patience he went over to the sofa and Kai grabbed a hold of Tyson's collar with his free hand to pull him close enough so that they were face to face. "I don't have time for this. If you must know then I'm down here fetching a bowl of cold water and a towel." He then violently let Tyson go not caring if he hurt Tyson in the process. Contrary to what he said before, Kai knew that Tyson was a big boy. He could handle it. "Rei is running a high fever. If he dies on me then I cannot utilize his strength to reach my goals. And I do need him to reach them." He turned on his heels and strode out the way he came and it wasn't until Max heard the tap running in the kitchen that he dared to break the silence. And he broke it hesitantly.

"Is… is he always like that?" Max flinched a bit at the stumble in his voice, but he couldn't help it. That Kai didn't see them as friends hurt more than he'd liked to admit.

"Y-yeah, you bet. If he got a better side then very very few have seen it. But he isn't this easy to rile up."

"Have you seen it? His better side I mean…"

Tyson grinned. "I have… in a way." They both heard Kai shutting off the tap and walk out to the hallway. They turned around to see him standing just by the staircase, looking at them. Kai's eyes locked hard on Tyson for a moment before he turned around and left to take care of his partner. Tyson sat down properly, leaning back and putting his feet on the table in front of them. "Aah, that's good to know."

Confusion wrote itself all over Max' face and his mouth was slightly ajar. "Did I just miss something here?"

Tyson put his hands behind his head. "He told us to have patience. He will tell us what happened."

"He didn't say anything."

"Hm, figures. But he will tell. Or he will have to answer to me and that I think he'd rather not. Now when we don't have an annoying eavesdropper around, what was it you said about having a few tricks up your sleeves?"

.

Up on the second floor it seemed almost quiet compared to downstairs. The door to their shared bedroom opened and Kai went in with the towel and the bowl filled with ice cold water. As he entered he noticed that Rei sat up in the bed, bandages visible by the collar and sleeves of his oversized t-shirt. His golden eyes fogged over and was staring straight forward. Not moving an inch until the sound of Kai closing the door could be heard. Then he in one movement wiped some sweat from his brow and started to clumsily try to move out of the bed, which looked more complicated than it should have been. And the wounds didn't even seem to hinder him. _That's odd. _Kai thought to himself. _ He can't be up and about yet. He shouldn't even be able to move._ He sighed and put the bowl with the towel upon the bedside table. "Go back to Bed."

Not stopping his movements even if his legs were tangled in the bed sheets Rei turned to Kai.

"I... I have to..." Rei slurred and seeing Kai getting closer he stopped moving again.

The latter crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Rei's behaviour. "And what are we up to?"

Rei threw his head in the other direction, staring around the room in despair. "But I have to stay aw… they're getting away… you're hurt…" Kai's look changed into disbelief. _He's delirious. Is he even conscious?_ Without a word Kai sat down on the bed next to the trashing Weapon and pushed him on the unwounded shoulder down to make him lie still. But Rei started struggling as much as he could in his state. "…I can't… Dinner… Tyson will-"

"-Tyson will wait. Don't worry. Just rest and get better." Not having the energy to continue Rei stopped his struggle instantly, but his breath was ragged and his eyes wouldn't close. So Kai put his hand above his eyes and shut them for him. Fortunately Rei stayed put, though his face expression and body composure was anything but relaxed. Moving his hand away from the eyes and up to Rei's forehead Kai felt the general condition of his fever and quickly his hand recoiled. It was no wonder that Rei was delirious. He was burning up. Frowning Kai took the thermometer he had put on the bedside table and put it in Rei's mouth. A few minutes later he looked at the digits. 42.3°C (≈108.14°F). The frown deepened. This was not good, not good at all. With that little battle before, the fever shouldn't be this high. But then again, him and Rei had always made sure to try and stay out of any rainy storms. Hurrying to soak the towel in the cold water Kai put it on Rei's forehead, not bothering to writhe it out more than necessary. That one would have to be changed often.

A content smile couldn't help but to grow on the corners of Kai's lips as he put a hand over his own face and continued to watch Rei through the spaces between his fingers. Dismissing the fever, he was glad that this had turned out as well as it had. Last time Rei had released his power and he sent Rei straight to the hospital only to find out that Rei was in a coma. And he stayed that way for a week. That was one of the most unnerving times in his life. Changing the side of the towel once again, Kai rose from the bed and went out of the door to finally confront the anxious duo downstairs. It wasn't at all that he had intentionally avoided them. They just weren't his top priority. As he got closer to the living room again he heard their voices speaking loudly without a care about the sleeping person upstairs. And it was about those pranks still? God! Couldn't Tyson just let those futile attempts die out already? It didn't work anyway. He made sure that it didn't. This time he didn't announce his arrival as he silently slipped into the room. Hanging on the back support of the sofa they both sat in Kai began to pretend to listen to their conversation. The question of how long it would take before they noticed his presence clustered in the back of his mind.

"…So if you just put some white pepper there then the reaction would be devastating? Dude. No way that can be right, the white pepper can't be the trigger?" Tyson waved exaggeratedly with his arms, unknowingly almost hitting Kai in the process who with his fast reflexes managed to avoid the hit by taking a step back and then he folded his arms.

Max snickered playfully and nodded eagerly. "Yes way! It works. I've tried it myself. But you have to be sure that the target doesn't notice you. That could destroy the whole trick and make it totally backfire."

"Thanks for the warning. You have like some awesome ideas there! How come I didn't meet you any earlier?"

The blonde put the blunette in a half loose head lock. "Oh, I don't know Tyson. Maybe destiny didn't want it that way?" Behind them another blunette was stamping his foot in annoyance. How long could it take, really?

Crawling out of the holding Tyson wrinkled his nose and roughly fixed his cap and hair. "Screw destiny! It's only in your way. Or maybe it helps you… whatever!" Tyson punched Max's shoulder and hoped inwardly that it wasn't hard enough to give any bruises. "You know Maxie? I bet we will make the best of partners. And I bet even more that our combined strength will be perfect enough to take on anyone or anything that may come in our way."

Max laughed at his enthusiasm. He actually wished he had that quality. That was something he had noticed about Tyson. He was strong, reliable and of course always found a way to make him smile. It didn't matter if it was the bad jokes or his never ending bluntness. It seemed to always make him laugh. "Somehow I find that hard to believe. What about those two, what were their names again, Bryan and Ta… Ta…?"

Tyson ignored the laughing, just happy to see a brighter side of Max then he saw before. "Tala? Nah, they'll be no problem after we got a little training."

"And what about Kai and Rei?" The blonde said with a smile, finally stifling his laughter.

Tyson folded his arms and his legs simultaneously. "They only got more experience. So as soon as we get out more on the field then we will be able to take them on for sur-"

Kai cleared his throat loudly.

"Kai! The two sofa sitters exclaimed as one and both jumped up in the air and spun around at the unexpected voice. Their eyes met Kai who still was stomping with his foot on the floor. A smirk was tugging at the corners of his lips but he held his face straight.

"Don't scare us like that…" Max continued on with his shocked state of mind. And finally Kai let that smirk grow. He was definitely amused to say the least.

"Getting a little ahead of ourselves Tyson?"

Darker blue eyes glared at him. "When the hell did you get here anyway?"

"That's irrelevant. Want to hear what happened or not?" Not waiting for an answer Kai walked around the sofa. In a single movement he sat down in the armchair from the lounge suite and swung up one leg over the other while leaning back to the back support and folding his arms. Both Tyson and Max remained silent, curiously fixating two pairs of eyes on him, begging him to start.

"You have heard of Tala and Bryan, have you not?" Kai directed towards the newest member of their group and the blonde nodded in answer. "A week ago I heard that they were going to be here in Moscow at a certain place at a certain time. But when we got there we found Spencer and Ian instead-"

"Who are Spencer and Ian?" Max asked hesitatingly, not really wanting to interrupt but still wanted a connection to the names.

"It's another pair of Weapon and Attacker that Kai knows of" Tyson answered and motioned for Kai to continue.

"They told us that Tala and Bryan would be at another place at another time and with that being our only other lead, we followed it. That led us to a far away, rundown school yard where they waited for us and I wouldn't be surprised if they had our rendezvous planned out. Why else would they cowardly wait until the storm to confront us."

Again Max interrupted Kai, though this time not as hesitantly. "Why would they wait until the storm to meet you?"

Kai was about to answer but changed his mind. Why would he tell a stranger how to fight them? "Because then they would have the big advantage." But of course Tyson had to but in. The cap-boy then pointed towards Kai. "Their weakness is rain."

Well, as long as it was out then he wouldn't need to hide it. It wasn't like they were weak just because they had a weakness. "You saw Rei this morning. He can hear a storm coming miles away and he says that it is like a constant noise hanging in the air. That noise snatches his attention unlike anything I've ever seen. When I first met him it was like he was dead to the world. He didn't hear anything, hardly ate and-" Kai stopped in the middle of the sentence. Looking away with irritation he swore quietly to himself. The other two waited eagerly for the continuation but it never came. Even Tyson hadn't heard this part before and he didn't want Kai stop speaking.

"And…?"

A moment or two passed before Kai spoke up again. "…And contrary to us the rain actually works in favour to Tala and Bryan. The bastards made sure to have the advantage of having the right atmosphere."

Slumping back in his seat Tyson put his hands behind his head. "So that is what made you lose then."

"We didn't lose." Kai snarled back harshly. "It was a tie. They took their fair share of beatings as well. Bryan got knocked unconscious and Tala could hardly stand up."

By shaking his head Max cleared his thoughts. This was quite some information to take in in just two short days. His head felt stuffed. But one thought did pop into his head. "Why didn't you call for help before you left if you knew that the odds were against you?"

Kai snorted and scratched his nose. "We don't need any help. I work best alone. Rei is just foolish enough to come along anyway."

Suddenly they heard something trashing in some other part of the house and Kai sighed loudly. Both Tyson and Max turned around in the sofa to look for what caused the noise and grew stiff. Max swallowed before he opened his mouth. "Eh… Kai?"

Dark sapphire eyes shifted over to the other blunette. "Is he really supposed to be up already?" But as he was about to move over to tend to the mentioned Weapon he got stopped by a hand in front of his face. Kai used that hand to press Tyson down on the sofa and took the few steps forward to meet the stumbling Weapon by the doorway. Rei stumbled forward and literally hung on the doorframe. It was as if he couldn't completely hold up his own bodyweight. Standing there in only his black boxers and red t-shirt he wheezed and stared out into nothing. Kai couldn't help but to wonder how on earth he had managed to get down the stairs still in one piece.

"I told you to rest." Kai tried out to see Rei's reaction. To his surprise Rei defiantly squeezed his eyes shut and quickly shook his head. But that only made him sway so he held the door frame tighter making his knuckles white in the process. Then he opened those golden eyes again that still had that same empty unfocused gaze wandering about, not even registering another person before him.

"… Hot… It's so hot…"

Kai frowned. "So you're thirsty." Receiving a hesitant nod from his partner Kai pointed towards the staircase. "Go back to bed and I'll get you a drink."

Rei's gaze stopped somewhere behind Kai's shoulder, totally looking passed the being in front of him. Ignoring, or not hearing, the blunette's words he lifted one of the hands that had held a tight grip on the doorframe. Then very softly, as if afraid of the touch, that hand closed Kai's eyelids, the mimicking motion Kai knew too well. He got the message even before Rei uttered another word. "You're tired. Go rest." The hand dropped rapidly as Rei lost the rest of the non-existing energy he had had left and collapsed. By pure reflex Kai skillfully managed to catch Rei in the air before he fell to the ground. He let Rei lean on one arm as he baffled over the fact that Rei had come all the way down there to make sure that he rested. And he was unconscious and delirious too above that. Kai stifled a yawn and turned around to address the other two occupants in the room only to startle over that they were standing directly behind him. They probably had been there the whole time too.

"You sure we shouldn't take him to the hospital?" Tyson asked in a calm and low voice, but even that low volume seemed too loud in the stifled atmosphere. The blonde nodded in agreement to the suggestion.

"Yes. He has a little more than 42°C fever. Otherwise he's fine." Kai picked the sick Weapon up and carried him away. Though he stopped as he was about to ascend the stairs and spoke to the other two without facing them. "Would you bring up a jug of cold water to our room? I'll go to sleep after this." Without waiting for the answer he knew he would get Kai walked up the stairs and away from the duo.

Tyson snorted in displeasure at being told what to do and went back into the living room instead to sit down again in front of the TV that had stood on this entire time. Max took notice of his partner's defiance and shook his head at the antics. Doing as he was told Max went in to the kitchen and started to roam the cupboards for a jug. After filling the one he found he saw the whole room light up and a lightning struck outside and the blonde looked out of the window. Still the rain poured down like a tap on full creating big puddles of water that ran along the soaked streets. Another lightning lit up the room and Max' thoughts started to spread. Suddenly he felt completely numb. Well, this bizarre family was the only thing he got right now.

And in these circumstances, he didn't want it any other way.

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A blonde, green and orange blur hurried up the stairs, skipping every other step on the way up. When he reached the top he grabbed hold of the handrail to swing him to another direction and took off towards his partner's room. The hinderance of the door got tackled opened and that colourful person took a leap and landed on top of a bed hosting a dark blue haired person snoring loudly. The springs made the blonde jump up a little when he landed and he fixed himself to straddle the owner of the room. When he noticed that he didn't get the desired result he continued his jumping, this time with more force.

"Mom, I'm free today. Just ten more minutes…" Tyson murmured and unconsciously used the momentum of the jump to throw off the one disturbing his beauty sleep. Max screamed as he fell of the bed and looked up in time to see the sleepyhead burying further below the cover, getting awfully cozy beneath it. Massaging his rear to relieve some pain Max stood up again and put his hands on his hips. He blew air through his bangs.

"No ten minutes here Tyson. I need you to get up." Seeing the other snoozing about Max grinned with a glint sparkling in his eyes. "I said up!" Max said and jumped up on the bed again. This time he jumped next to Tyson instead and he put everything in this one skip. He jumped up in the air and pressed his legs down hard in the mattress. The result, a distressed and sprawling Tyson jumped up in the air and landed on the floor. Hearing a loud groan Max pulled down his arm in victory. The he leaned forward, leaning on his knees. "Decided to wake yet?"

Tyson groaned again and shook his head. "What the hell Max. What was that good for?"

Max moved to sit on the bed instead, dangling his legs over the edge. "You needed to climb out of the bed sleepyhead. Simple as that." He said and smiled innocently at his partner. Tyson looked at his alarm clock that surprisingly was still lying on the bedside table. Seeing the digits he groaned and rubbed his palms to his eyes.

"It's still way too early man."

"It's Monday morning. And we have work to do." Max stated. He then climbed off the bed and walked out of the room.

Tyson stretched his body to wake up and then hurriedly changed clothes. He slid on the hand railing down the staircase and met the blonde down in the hallway. The blunette looked questioningly at him. "We got work?" The blonde just shrugged.

"Not so much work as workout I guess. Kai called and told me that we are to meet him at one of the training halls at the BBA headquarters." The blonde said and together they walked into the kitchen.

"When are we supposed to be there?"

"At ten, 'and don't be late' he said." Max tried to imitate Kai but failed miserably.

Tyson choked on something. "At ten? Why didn't you wake me up earlier! We need to hurry!" Tyson took a large bite of the sandwich he had just made and he ungracefully stormed out of the room. Max blinked.

"Tyson?"

There was a little pause before he heard the mentioned person speak through the distance. "Pack your training gear Maxie! We're running late!"

Max looked at his watch. "But we have loads of time. It's still three quarters until we have to be there."

"The bus ride takes 30 minutes! We need to go now!"

"But I don't have any training clothes!"

"You can borrow from me. Come on! Hurry up!"

By the time Max finished his sandwich Tyson slid down the railing again. The Attacker grabbed the Weapons arm and ran out the door, almost forgetting to lock the door after them. They then raced towards the nearest bus station.

As they arrived to the BBA Centre they rushed through the building, only stopping once to ask the receptionist for the directions. In the confusing maze they tried to navigate through the hallways as quickly as possible and somehow they managed to reach the assigned training hall in record time. They hurriedly changed clothes and slammed open the door and sprinted inside. "We're here!" Tyson exclaimed in between his heavy breaths. He took a deep one and managed to steady his breathing, hearing Max follow his example next to him. Dark sapphire eyes roamed the area. Kai was nowhere in sight and that made Tyson beam up. "Yes! I made it! I can't be late if the preacher is not here in time!"

Max shook his head and hit his friend's shoulder playfully. "Still doesn't change the fact pal. We're late." Max stopped in his track and tilted his head while looking around. The Weapon then poked the Attacker. "Tyson? Do you hear that?" Tyson heeded the words and began listening for something unknown. Slowly the steady beat was head through the hall. The rhythm seemed to changed every now and then but it didn't falter in its continuity. Following the beating sound they soon reached a lit up corner. Inside the duo found Kai hitting a dark red punching bag at a fast tempo, the bag lifting high from its hanging position. The blonde cleared his throat. "We're sorry we're late. We arrived as fast as we could."

Kai tensed up and punched a few slower, much stronger, punches. He then finished with a powerful sidekick that stopped the bag from swinging all together. Placing a gloved hand on the punching bag to stop it from wobbling the blunette used his mouth to rip of the Velcro restriction on the other black boxing glove off. He placed the glove under his arm and took off the other with that hand as well to have one hand free to draw his fingers through his damp hair. He did this while walking up to Tyson and Max. The light gray tank top he wore was moist with sweat, as was his skin and along the black training trousers' legs ran three white stripes. Wheezing he stood in front of the pair and put his free hand on his hip. "So you finally decided to show up."

Tyson scoffed. "We were not late. We came exactly on time."

Kai let out a snort. "Yeah right." Blood red eyes shifted over to the Weapon. "Max, have you practiced any martial arts?"

The blonde looked elsewhere, finding that spot on the floor suddenly very interesting. He shifted he weight. "Nope, not really…"

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Do you have any training at all?"

"Well I have been having my matches with my brother, if that counts." Max searched for help from Tyson.

Kai put a palm to his face and slowly drew his fingers through his hair again. Why did he have to put up with amateurs? "Okay, today I got the assignment to train you two." He let his hand fall to the side again. "As it seems, I will have to start from the beginning and see what you two can accomplish together. Tyson, do you have your sword with you?"

The said person grinned widely. "Of course. I always bring it with me to any training. I do need the awesome Dragoon by my side."

"Good. Next time, don't bring it along." Kai took the gloves he had in one hand and threw them to the sidewall. Then he cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers. "This is what we'll do. I will attack you and you will defend yourselves. Your goal is to shift the fight and land a single hit on me. The only rule is that you will have to work together. It will help you see if you really are connected in the end."

The glint of challenge lit up in Tyson's eyes and he grinned at Max. "Come on Maxie, let's do our Best! Kai? When will we stop?"

"Whenever I decide you are ready."

"Yeah that's chill, and he's already tired himself out. This will be an eas-" Before Tyson could finish his sentence Kai had hit him straight on with an open hand to his chest. And before Max could react Kai had his other hand to circle Max' neck and sent the blonde flying forward behind himself so that he had managed to send the two in different directions. Kai straightened and lifted his palm upwards and let his other hand rest on his hip, aiming his glare for Tyson.

"Tyson! Rule number 5." The blunette hissed out in warning.

"Hey! You said only one rule!"

Max raised himself from the floor and looked questioningly at Kai. "Rule number 5?"

Kai didn't take his eyes away from the other Attacker and Tyson met his glare with a challenging grin. "Less talk, more action, right?" Tyson sank into a familiar fighting stance, one hand holding an imaginary sheath and the other holding out an imaginary sword, and took a deep breath. Max also took an offensive stance and got ready for the onslaught that were ahead.

Then Kai attacked them once more.

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**A/N: **Okay, this chapter was _not_ meant to be this long. But I hope you're not complaining about it ;). Btw, do you want to know how much research and effort I put into this/my story (and also one of the reasons it takes such a long time to update sometimes)? Example, the thermometer Kai is using is showing Celsius not because that it what we use here where I live, but because that is what they use over in Russia. I had to look that up on the internet.

Hm, I do realize one thing. Kai talks a lot in this chapter. Oh hell, it's not like he doesn't speak. I do have to ask you guys something. I'm unsure if I made Max become OOC in this chapter. But at the same time I feel that it is needed. I'm very uncertain. What do you think?

Anyway, Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Sincerely

/Bonnie


	7. Chapter 6

**Title:** The Tale of Trust

**Author:** Bonnie-San

**Word count:** 9654 words

**Disclaimer: **Let's just say that _if_ I owned Beyblade then I would officially state the Kai would be totally 100% Russian. 'Cause we all know that Kai is so much hotter and cooler as a Russian than a Japanese. No offence to Japanese people, They're cool too, but in another way… And Kai's not that way…

**A/N: **Yeah… Better late than never, I guess. Just want to let you know that I'm doing my best to get this out as fast and in as high quality as possible. And know that I will never quit writing this one fanfic until it is completely finished. =)

And a HUGE thank you to Sparkleshadowcat for pushing me and helping me along the way. I really need it (and I should probably write you up as a BETA-reader soon too, don't you think?). Loads of hugses to you! And lots of hugses to GatewaysDiary too! I _loved_ your review! Even if it took time for the new chapter to come out, your review did help me a lot on the way of finding the inspiration and motivation to continue for the moment.

Anyway, enough author's note rambling. Here is the new chapter. See it as an early Christmas present from me to you ^.^

Enjoy!

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**-*-.-*-Chapter 6-*-.-*-**

Tyson was startled out of his deep sleep and sat up quickly to catch his breath. Next to him he could hear Max laugh out loud in the otherwise quiet room. The blonde was laughing so hard that his knees hardly could hold up his own weight. He massaged his own stomach to relieve part of the cramp and somehow try to fill his lungs with air again. Tyson calmed his nerves and when he heard his blue eyed friend taking a deep breath he sent a scolding glare at him. "Okay, it's not that funny." He pouted and suppressed a yawn. Then he clumsily climbed out of the bed and started to change clothes.

Having to take another deep, shuddering breath to calm down those blue eyes sparkled with left over amusement. "I can't believe that whispering stuff in your ear actually woke you up! It's almost as if the thing that you least expect to wake you up does the trick."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever." This time the yawn escaped before Tyson could attempt to stop it and he put a hand over his mouth. "At what god-like hour did you wake me up this time? I'm guessing seven. It sure feels like seven."

"Nah, it's more like half past nine." As Tyson had exchanged his last piece of clothing, his dull yellow t-shirt, Max jumped at him and put him in a big, tight headlock. "And you know what? The pain is finally gone and it feels like we finally have accomplished something with our training. Almost like I could do like… I don't know… anything! Today let's show Kai what we're made off."

"You got that part right, alright. But the real reason we haven't won yet is because I haven't been allowed to use my sword. I'm a swordsman not a fricking martial artist, and I still don't get why we have to learn… Wait, did you say half past nine? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" Tyson threw himself out of the hug and began running around the room, packing their daily bag. "We're late! We're late! We're late!" But Max's giggle made him stop in his track and he glanced at the other. "What are you laughing about? Man, we totally need to go, now!"

That made Max burst out laughing again, but Tyson's pissed off face helped him quiet it down a bit. "Aah, sorry Tyson. I'm just so very content today. It's like we're actually getting somewhere here."

Tyson turned away from Max and continued to pack the bag. "But that's not an excuse to be late. Not in Kai's eyes. We really need to hurry!"

Max took a hold of his Attacker's shoulder and spun him around again. He grinned widely at the blunette. "Chill man, we got the morning off. Kai said he had something to take care of."

The words seemed to work like magic for the Attacker to stop and register their meaning. Then he slumped down on the floor. "…What? Does that mean I could have slept until Lunch? Did you really have to wake me up so early then?"

Max just nodded. "Yup, I was bored. There's nothing fun on the TV and all my other stuff is-" He involuntarily faltered in his speech and he pushed himself to quickly recover and continue. "…it's all back at my home." He smiled softly. He wouldn't let that little slip up pull his general mood down. "Come on Tyson! Let's go downstairs. I'm starving."

Seeing the other leave his room, Tyson hurriedly put on the red and blue cap he was holding and followed out through the door. He went down the staircase and saw Max standing in the door opening to the kitchen. Putting a hand on his shoulder Tyson was about to ask what was up when he followed Max's line of sight and felt both rejoice and anxiousness over what he saw. There by the dinner table was Rei sitting on a chair and resting his head on the table while his arms hung straight down. His head was turned away from them but they could hear a soft snoring sounding throughout the room, betraying the Weapon by telling the pair that he was in fact asleep. Tyson quietly sneaked past the stunned blonde and began setting the table with their breakfast around the sleeper trying not to be too noisy. The blue eyes followed his Attacker in wondering what to do before he decided to follow suit. When they were done and sitting down eating Rei met Max's eyes with one open bloodshot one only to shift in place, close the eye again and sigh heavily. Max smiled brightly upon him.

"Good morning Rei. We didn't mean to wake you up."

Rei shrugged lazily in his place. "I wasn't asleep. Just resting my eyes." The raspy, tired voice didn't surprise either Tyson or Max.

Tyson snorted. "Like hell you weren't. We heard you snoring." He took a bite from his sandwich and grinned at him with a mouth full of food.

Ignoring it Rei sat up straight in a try to become more alert and blinked several time to get the sleepiness away from his eyes. Max noted that the redness somehow enhanced his pure golden irises creating this rich colour mix. But as he mused about it Rei seemed to change his mind about trying to wake up and sunk down low in his chair, leaning his head on the top of the back support and hung his uninjured arm over his eyes. "Damn I'm tired. It totally feels like I've been running for days straight. What time is it anyway?"

Max noticed that Tyson was too busy stuffing himself and drinking his chocolate milk to answer so he himself turned around in his chair to look at the clock on the wall behind him. "It's almost twenty to ten in the morning." He answered and turned back to his breakfast.

There was a short pause that hung in the air, Rei staying completely still. "…And what day?" They could both hear in the raven haired boy's voice that he didn't really want an answer to the question but as he asked Max answered anyway.

"Tuesday."

Rei lifted his arm to look expectantly at the blonde. He then let his arm fall behind his head, supporting it, and sighed as heavily as before. "Man, no wonder I'm dead tired." It was then that Rei registered the dark purple mixed with yellow black eye that nicely marked Max' otherwise pretty face. His eyes widened. "Wow, that's a beauty Maxie. What happened to your eye?"

Max got bewildered. "What are you…?" His eyes met Tyson questioningly and Tyson pointed him in the right direction. The blonde raised a hand and touched the wrong eye. Then he looked up through his bangs before he lowered the hand again and laughed at himself. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that. This one I got during the first training session with Kai." The younger Weapon raised his shirt showing off a big, very nasty looking, bruise on his opposite side of the eye which also had a yellow hue. "I got this one too that day. It's been real tough training with him but it was totally worth it. I've had a blast!"

Tyson pointed his fourth sandwich to Max' side. "Dude, I so remember when you got that bruise. It looked like it hurt real bad. And Kai that bastard didn't even stop to help you."

The blonde laughed at the memory. "Aah, fun times. Thanks again for helping me." He took the last bite of his own sandwich and dusted off his fingers.

"Anytime pal. But you did very well for training with him for the first time, no matter what Kai said." Tyson added quickly. "Don't ever believe otherwise Maxie."

"I know. You've already told me that. Several times even. But Kai is the boss here. His word goes without question, right?"

"Yeah, he wishes."

Beside them Rei was stumped. Kai's training? First day? Max had only been here for a few days and he didn't remember Kai training them. He would know if they trained with his partner. His gaze shifted between them both as they had continued their conversation. "… How long was I gone?"

The pair simultaneously turned their attention to the third person, the blunette grinned widely while the blonde smiled softly. The former being the one to answer. "A week."

Rei sat up straight, suddenly very alert. "A what…?"

"A week Rei." Max concluded. "And you had us all worried. Are you okay?"

The older Attacker slumped down again. "I'm fine. There's no way Bryan can defeat me. Though by the looks of it, it was a close call."

Also finishing his breakfast Tyson stood up and began to clear the table. Max had followed his partner a short while with his gaze and decided to change the subject, addressing to his fellow Weapon. "Have you spoken to Kai yet today?"

Rei wanted to lift up his arms to have his hands entwine behind his head but the pain that surfaced in his injured shoulder changed his mind. Instead he crossed both his arms and his legs and heavy curious eyes landed on Max. "Kai? No. Why?"

"I was just wondering if you knew why Kai cancelled our training, that's all. By the way, if you don't have anything to do today." The blue eyes shone with a resolve that Rei didn't quite hear in his voice. "Won't you come with us to watch us train? It could be fun."

Tyson, who was standing by the sink washing dishes turned around with a wet plate still in his hands, but it was Rei that voiced their same thought. "Sure that's such a bright idea Max?"

"Yeah, Rei doesn't look like he should be up and running Max" The Attacker put in his voice of opinion.

The blonde nodded. "Yes. But I believe it's better than to leave you here at home alone."

The sapphire eyes by the sink shone up and he put down the wet plate. "Oh yes, you're coming with us Rei. There is this awesome move I need to show you. It even got a hit on Mr. I-can't-be-punched-right."

The raven haired raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, you win. I'll come along." His unharmed hand fell behind his head again and he smiled. "It's been a while since we've trained together Tyson. Let's see if you really have improved as you say."

"Oh you better believe it. When you're well again Rei, let's have rematch and you will see that I gotten better."

Rei met the challenge straight on. "It's a deal."

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Down at the BBA centre, in one of the assigned training areas, the three of them hung about and were waiting for the fourth person to arrive. Rei sat and leaned against the wall while watching as the others were warming up. Their scheduled time to meet up had already past some time ago and they had yet to see even the smallest glimpse of Kai. The Attacker was seldom late, at least not without reason, and it was noticeable by the tension in his posture that it troubled the older Weapon.

"This is just perfect. The one time I'm actually in time and he's late." Tyson complained out loud as he made some squats.

"Don't worry. He probably has his reasons." Rei put in and unconsciously took a quick glance at the door once more. Max stopped in his stretching. He couldn't help get the feeling that the raven haired man had said that more as a reassurance to himself than anything.

"Who said I worried?" Tyson scoffed at him, somehow confirming Max's feeling.

"But even if he's late, he could come in here any minute." The blonde tried in a positive tone in order to cheer the atmosphere up.

Rei crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "In the meantime, tell me what you guys have been doing during these training sessions so far. Maybe I can help."

The Attacker stopped in his warm up. "We've only tried to hit Kai. And since he's not here, that's not possible."

"And you're in no condition to spar against us." Max put in.

Rei's eyes widened in shock. "You haven't been able to land a single hit on him?" He knew that Kai was good but so was Tyson. He definitely knew that Tyson could land a hit. Rei had seen it happen many times.

"We succeeded alright." The blunette said with irritation dripping in his voice. "But Kai didn't think we were 'cooperating' enough to pass us to the next stage."

At that moment Rei understood what Kai's goal was. And he almost laughed out loud at the irony of it all. "Then while we wait for my late partner to get here I suggest that you two fight against each other. By doing so you will learn how the other fights and therefore can later on more easily predict your partner's movements when fighting side by side."

"Sounds like a plan." Max turned to Tyson so that they were standing face to face. His partner nodded once and bowed accordingly to the blonde who quickly followed his example.

"Are you ready Blondie?" The blunette grinned and lowered his stance into that which he always started with; at least he had during this week that Max had been training with him.

Max matched his partner's grin and raised fists defensively. "Ready when you are."

With determination glowing in his eyes the Attacker's grin disappeared and while taking a step he quickly made a movement as if pulling out a sword from its sheath. Having seen this move several times the last week Max was ready and stepped back at the same pace that of Tyson's. His grin was still in place and he was just about to comment on the Attacker's lack of success when Tyson stepped inside his personal space and elbowed him right in the chest. The attack hit the air out of Max's lungs and sent him down to the floor. In victory Tyson turned to Rei with a big smile filled with pride. "Now that that is finished, what else do you want us to do?"

One of the raven's canine teeth showed as he grinned knowingly. "Rule number 1."

Tyson's eyes widened and he was just about to put up his guard again and turn around when he got a hard punch in the face. The force of that punch made him stumble sideways but he quickly regained his balance. "Oh, good one Maxie! Ouch, that hurt."

"Don't count me out yet Tyson." Max said as he massaged his knuckles. Then he formed his hands into a T sign. "Hold on a sec, time out. What rule was it this time?"

Eagerly the blunette answered his confused Weapon. "Rule number 1: Never turn your back towards the enemy." The voice Tyson had used sounded just as if he had heard it so many times that he even took up the tone he'd been taught by.

"How many rules do you have anyway?"

"Only six so far. And it's good that it's not more than that, it makes it much easier to remember."

Suddenly they got interrupted by Rei's hands clapping loudly, the noise echoing in the big room. "Come on guys, time out's over. Get back to training. And if you both do good today I will treat you to my beef and bamboo tonight." He saw Tyson shining up at the thought and saw that he turned to Max to get started. "And this time I want more sparring. More team work. The point isn't to beat your opponent but to get to test each other and to get to know each other." When he got signs of their acknowledges the raven haired decided that he could leave things alone for a while and lay down to rest while the others had their fun.

They continued to train for several hours and as it grew closer to dinner time both Max and Tyson had grown nicely moist and both physically and mentally exhausted. Rei had been lying next to them, giving advises when he could and helped when it was needed, still there was no sign of Kai all day. They decided to call it a day and packed their thing to leave. Tyson and Max showered and changed and they met Rei outside of the locker room. They slowly began to move out of the centre, Rei fast on picking up the front, and when they did reach the entrance Tyson stopped abruptly. He grabbed a hold of Max's sleeve, halting him in the process.

"Wait guys! I have an idea." He exclaimed and turned around on his heels to walk steadfastly in the other direction. As Tyson was still holding Max's sleeve the Weapon had no choice but to tag along, yet he managed to send Rei a surprised glance before the force of his partner made him spin the other way. The raven haired lifted an eyebrow and soon followed the duo. Being lead around the headquarters Max got lost in the maze of seemingly countless corridors. Marvelling over the modern colourful style of the place Max still thought that it had a certain sterile cling to it. Suddenly Tyson stopped right in front of a door and Max barely managed to stop himself from walking straight into the Attacker. They were standing in front of a door that looked just like every other door in this facility.

"Why are we stopping here?" Max heard Rei ask apprehensively from behind him.

The blunette simply smirked. "Just watch and you'll see for yourself." He threw open the door and marched inside the dark room like he owned the place. "Hi Chief! Guess who's here!" The two Weapons entered the room after him.

"What's up Kenny?"

Max trailed his gaze at Rei who wore a content, though tired, smile. Kenny. He seemed important and he knew he had heard that name somewhere. Wasn't Kenny the person Tyson wanted him to meet? The only thing he could see out of this said 'Kenny' was the light contours visible from the blazing screens that hung on the completely black wall behind him.

"You shouldn't keep it this dark in here, Chief. It will totally destroy your eyes… well, more than they already are that is." The raven haired said and flipped the light switch to illuminate the room. Max gasped as he saw the interior. The small room wasn't as small as he first thought, and all the machines! He had never seen such big computer. The blonde felt his eyes grow bigger and his vision wandered aimlessly. "Wow…" He said astonishingly. "This is amazing."

Tyson's laugh at his expressing didn't escape him one bit. "Don't lose your chin Maxie!"

"Maxie? Oh, so this is your Weapon." Max flinched at the imagined undertone of a voice he hadn't heard before. It still hurt to be associated with a weapon even if he got that a 'Weapon' wasn't anything bad. Putting the feeling aside he examined the person this unknown voice belonged to. This 'Kenny' standing right next to his partner. What he saw wasn't what he had expected from a friend of Tyson's, though he should have known better than to judge people.

Kenny was short. That was the first thing he noted. Then the thick glasses that was placed on his poofy brown hair. Clothes weren't anything special, just a button-up shirt tied up tight by a green tie and a pair of blue-purple shorts. It made Max giggle and he blurted out what was on his mind before he could stop it. "Man, you look like such a dork."

Kenny looked like he had walked straight into a wall of surprise. "…Excuse me?"

"In a good way." The American assured giving a thumb-up and a smile to support the statement. "You look like you totally know everything."

Instead a tint a pink discreetly surfaced on Kenny's cheeks at the compliment. "Not really.. everything." The brunette started to fiddle with his index fingers and sought out Tyson's gaze. The blunette grinned at him in return.

"But you knew I was Tyson's partner. And that is something we haven't been broadcasting."

Stating it as a matter-of-fact the Shorty straightened his back. "Yeah. Mr. Dickenson told me that Tyson had met his Weapon and I then simply connected the obvious dots."

The Attacker patted Kenny's shoulder. "My pal here knows everything that this organization knows."

"Tyson! That's just absurd. I don't know everything."

"Okay then, what you don't know is inside that big computer which _you_ monitor."

"You see Max, Chief has a brilliant mind. Doesn't forget anything he learns, which is why he got this position." The Chinese said to intervene with his input. Finding himself surprised at the unexpected voice Max realized that he had momentarily forgotten Rei's presence upon meeting Kenny. Now he noted that he was standing by the screen searching for something.

The blush deepened on Kenny's face and Max deemed it totally adorable. He pulled the genius into a hug. "That's impressive Kenny. I wish I had that ability."

Kenny opened his mouth to say something but Tyson beat him to it. "Yup, that's my buddy alright." He gloated all too proudly.

Feeling very pressured by the attention and the unforeseen scenario Kenny looked like he would blow his top at any second. His eyes shifted between Tyson and Max. "But… but… We don't know each other! How can you have this close proximity?" The blonde tapped his nose tip teasingly and got a suppressed scream in return. Max let go of Kenny to relieve some of the pressure the brunette obviously felt.

"Chill out Chief." The blonde apologized and in his surprise Tyson took his place next to the genius. And the Attacker's face brightened up the atmosphere.

"It's so nice to see you get along just fine."

Despite the tense stature Kenny was portraying he was actually glad to have finally met Max as Tyson's Weapon and even if a little too forward for his taste Max seemed like such a nice kid. He wouldn't have asked for a better partner for his childhood friend. He bowed to Max 'forcing' Tyson to let go of his shoulders. "It's a real honour and privilege to meet you Max."

Not wanting to be rude Max hurried to give Kenny his own quick bow in return. "No, no. the pleasure is all mine."

Rei cleared his throat and got the trio's attention. "Tyson, this meeting is very nice and all but did you bring us here for a reason? We need to go home." The tone Rei used was strained and a little forceful.

"Oh yeah! Kenny? Would you fetch Mr. Dickenson for an old friend?"

The genius eyed his friend sceptically. "Why would you want to talk with the Boss?"

"I'll tell you when you get him, now go. Fetch!" Tyson urged and pushed Kenny out of the room.

"But I-" Was the only thing they could hear from the four-eyes before Tyson shut the door.

Rei gazed after the short teen. "You know he's not going to let you hear the end of it when he gets back." Seeing the glint in his eyes and Tyson's mischievous grin he snickered lightly. "Fine, I get it. So why did you send after Mr. Dickenson anyway? You could just as well have called him on the phone."

Max tuned out the conversation and started scanning the inside of the place Kenny worked more thoroughly. What intrigued him the most was the big machine. And as big as that machine was, it didn't even make a sound. Its complexity, it was stunning. Out of nowhere Tyson's grinning face appeared in his line of sight and the Max skipped a heart beat at the unexpected intrusion. The blunette's laughed at the jump but he quickly calmed down in order to address Max's curiosity. "It's awesome, isn't it?"

"It's huge." Tyson laughed again at the simplicity in the statement and he couldn't do anything else but to agree. Max looked amused. "Man, I wonder how Kenny can work in here."

"Kenny is a computer geek. It's his dream work." Tyson stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then he smirked and waved Max to follow. "Come here Maxie. I'm gonna show you something really awesome." They stepped up in front of the screens and Max sent a questioning glance at Rei just as he checked what it was that Tyson were going to show him.

"Tyson, you sure you know what you are doing? This is Chief's computer after all." Rei put in on the side line and Tyson discardingly brushed the comment away.

"Yes Rei, I know what to do. Kenny showed me how to do it." The Attacker rolled the mouse wheel to awake the screen and there it said that it wanted a password. Tyson quickly inserted the letters and waited for the machine to register them. A window surfaced with the words 'incorrect password' written on it and the blunette scoffed and tried again to type in the correct password. The same thing happened and in frustration Tyson hit the keyboard. "Damn it Dizzy, let me in already." Trying yet again Tyson typed in the letters and waited those awful few seconds before he was granted access. Doing a victory sign to himself Tyson then eagerly began to press a number of combinations on the keyboard, a little too fast for Max to follow. Several windows popped up and then suddenly the screen stood still even as Tyson continued to press buttons. Max nudged him insecurely.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

Tyson looked up at Max questioning and then turned to the screen. The blunette's eyes widened. "Eeh… yepp, yepp! It's totally supposed to do that. I just need to…eh..." He rambled and hit the screen to kick start it again. They watched it flicker before it drew green and light purple lines over the image. Tyson pressed more buttons and the window turned the screen yellow and green instead. He looked horrified and Max felt the emotion dread hit him hard inside. What had his partner just done?

Rei was ready to scold Tyson when the door opened and Tyson hurried to turn off the screen and managed just in time as an old man with a horrible green suit plus a fitting bowler hat, small glasses and a white moustache ventured inside, Kenny following shortly after. Tyson leaned discreetly against the working desk by the weird screen.

"Hello my boys!" The old man said with a big smile and he lifted his hat up.

"Hi Mr. Dickenson. Long time no see." Rei returned the warming smile and bowed.

The old man patted his head and lifted his chin up. "It's good to see you up on your legs again. You need to take better care of yourself. This old coot can only do so much."

Before Rei could think of coming up with an answer Tyson took a hold of Mr. Dickenson's arm, catching his attention. "Mr. Dickenson! There's someone I want you to meet!" He dragged the old man away from Rei and directed him with a swing of his arm. "This is my awesome Weapon."

The Weapon put one hand on his hip and made a victory sign with the other. "Max Tate, at your service."

Mr. Dickenson blinked for short moment and gathered his wits He took a good hold of Max's hand and shook it firmly. "Oh, where are my manners? Stanley Dickenson. I assume that the boys have taken well care of you."

"Yes, they have been very nice to me."

That was when Mr. Dickenson saw the healing black eye that was colouring Max's face. "Maybe I assumed too much. That eye looks terrible."

Tyson folded his arms and bristled bitterly. "That's Kai's doing. And he didn't even apologize."

"Oh well. That kid can get a bit reckless. At least it is healing alright." The old man said and patted Max's shoulder. The American felt the support the man gave them with that simple motion. He could tell that this was a nice and humble old man, someone people looked up to.

Rei intervened wearing a serious face. "Sorry to have to put this nice meet-up to a close but Tyson, state your business here. We need to go home."

Looking confused it took the Japanese a while to remember the reason they had visit here. But when he did remember he shone up. "Oh yeah! Mr. Dickenson? Think you can do me a favour?" He put his hands together over his head as if in a prayer.

Mr. Dickenson was amused by the thought of how this proud boy could beg him so. How could he not comply with his wishes if he acted like that? But first… "That depends on what you're asking of me Tyson." The old man said with a big smile. It made Max almost think that it looked a tad too glad, almost as if it was a fake.

Tyson looked Max over before he answered. "You think you could bring us to America? It will go on my tab. Max has to visit his family."

Max staggered, being stunned by his partners words. So that was the reason they went here. It almost sent tears to his eyes at Tyson's selfless act. He himself had completely forgotten to ask about it, mostly because he thought that it wasn't possible but also because he had had so much to do since he got here. That didn't excuse him for not asking though.

"And where in America do you want to go? America is a large country."

Tyson sent his partner a questioning glance and Max took the implication. "I'm sure you haven't heard of the place. It's a small island right outside the San Francisco coast line. You can't get there without a boat."

Mr. Dickenson lifted a finger wiggling it from side to side. "Don't underestimate my connections my boy. Let's look through the database to see if we have anything close by. Kenny? Will you do us the honour?"

Kenny nodded in affirmation and made to move to the computer but Tyson hurried to get in the way and casually leaned against the keyboard desk. "No! I'm mean, Chief, Mr. D. That's not necessary. You can take the money out of my next salary." Max hit his forehead at Tyson's oh so indiscreet glancing towards the corrupted screen behind him.

Rei instead snickered. He was so enjoying this. "Chief, why don't you start-"

"Please!" Tyson cut Rei off and he glared at the Chinese who looked away in an innocent display, unmoved by the death sentences Tyson sent his way.

"I'm afraid I cannot let you travel there without a mission." The old man put his hands on his hips in a half scolding manner. "You are very much needed here." He then lifted his index finger up and winked. "Tell you what. There seems to be something wrong with the magical core of that area outside of San Francisco. I was going to give that assignment to someone else but since you asked so nicely…"

The attacker shone up brightly and ran over to his Weapon. "Hear that Maxie? Man, this is so awesome! Just you and I buddy. Thanks Mr. D!"

Mr. Dickenson chuckled and smoothed out his white moustache. "…of course, since this is your first mission together and on a new place, you will have to have some company with you. Someone who's experienced enough on these travels. I believe Kai and Rei will do just fine."

That made Rei react where he leaned against the wall and he looked sharply at his boss. "Kai won't be happy with that sir. As you know he recently found Tala and Bryan lingering in the neighbourhood."

"Then I'll give you a week. That should be enough time to finish this. We'll just have to write it into the database and the assignment is all yours."

Tyson quickly hurried over to take a firm hold of one of both Max and Rei's arms. "Yes you do that. But we'll leave for now. We need to go home. Bye Chief! Bye Mr. Dickenson! You're the best!" The Japanese ran out of the door dragging his friends along not giving them a chance to say their own goodbyes. Kenny frowned and shook his head.

"Seems like he was in a hurry, probably his stomach speaking for him. That guy should learn to control his urges. Man, that was just rude."

Mr. Dickenson chuckled again making his moustache move at the rhythm of the laugh. "That kid always has a surprise up his sleeve, we'll just have to trust him that he knows what he is doing."

Kenny got the feeling that Stanley didn't speak about what had transpired moments ago but about something much bigger. He went over to his computer and sat down on the chair. At least he finally got to meet Tyson's partner. That was definitely a highlight of the day. He knew Tyson had waited for this to happen for so long. Longer than he could probably remember. Speaking of Tyson's Weapon… "Mr. Dickenson? Wasn't Tate the surname of Judy?" When he saw the old man nod he gasped. "But that means…"

"Indeed it does Kenny."

Chief could help to smile. "I knew it! I knew I recognized him from somewhere."

"I see nothing gets past your sharp mind Kenny." Mr. Dickenson glanced at the door were Max and the gang had exit through moments ago. "Sadly she cannot be here to see what this boy can do. Destiny was what brought him here, not she, and I truly hope for the sake of those boys that destiny is on their side. They are fine men and they deserve nothing but the best. Let's aid them in any way we can."

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They stepped out of the bus and walked along the street to their home. Rei walking a few steps ahead lazily listening to the conversation the two had behind him. The blue sky was starting to turn a darker tone and the wind seemed to get cooler but not cold enough to give people more than a slight chill. Having walked these roads now for little more than a week Max was beginning to recognize his surroundings and started to relax as they got closer to home. Yes, he was really coming to see this place as his new home. Without a warning Rei stopped in front of them and the duo halted their pace as well. Tyson grabbed roughly at his shoulder and pulled him back a step. Rei winced out loud.

"Hey man, why did you stop?" Tyson asked unintentionally rudely not noticing Rei's squirming.

"Tyson.." The voice was painted with pain and Rei tried to bend the hand holding him away without hurting himself. "Let go."

Max who was standing on the other side of Rei watched Tyson jerk away and apologize repeatedly. It took a moment of insight for him to remember the Chinese's injured shoulder and he decided to walk ahead of the others. He would have no problem find his way from here. It was just at the end of this street. But as soon as he looked up and ahead he realized why Rei had stopped in the first place. Between them and the sanctum of their home stood a horrifying, blue-white, hairy creature, and it was facing their way. The blonde felt a shiver crawl along his spine and the hair at the back of his neck rose. He wasn't sure if it was the razor sharp teeth or the unnaturally sharp claws that caused those shivers but it didn't matter. Hearing a gasp next to him he figured that Tyson had just spotted the creature as well. There was a quiet moment with none of them moving for the fear of alarming it before the creature began too slowly creep its way closer, obviously aiming for them. It took a step, and two, as it started to leap into a sprint closing in on them rapidly. Out of reflex Rei shoved the pair away in different directions, Tyson flipping over a fence and disappearing behind some bushes in a neighbour's garden and Max falling roughly to the street and scraping his elbows when landing. Not having time to guard his own skin Rei took the full hit of the charging monster. It tackled the raven haired straight into a lone close by tree and he slid down slowly. He made as to stand up but could hardly rise from the ground and instead slumped down in a sitting position against the tree trunk, unconscious. The monster closed in on its motionless prey, drool dripping from its mouth.

"Rei!" Both Tyson and Max screamed in unison and the noise seemed to distract the fiend long enough for it to gather its senses and realize that there were others around as well. What could be interpreted as a growl was resonating from the hairy beast's throat and the pair was soon up on their legs again, readying for a battle they had little hopes in winning. But god be damned if they weren't going to try. Tyson advanced forward to the beast and in an old habit he reached for his sword only to realize that he didn't have it with him. In a split second he then changed his mind and pulled a right hook to its big torso. The monster looked down incredulously at the pathetic attempt and then with a roar it slashed Tyson with its claws creating four long gashes along his chest. Instantly the hairy monster back handed the Attacker sending him flying across the pavement.

Having become paralyzed by the real threat from the monster the blonde had felt a sudden déjà vu at his own helplessness. But as he saw his partner flying he was fast on his feet and ran to the blunette's aid. "Tyson? Are you alright?"

The Attacker rose to his elbows groaning at the pain in his chest. "-Yeah… I'm fine. -Packs one hell of a punch." Getting help from the Weapon to sit up Tyson looked down on his now sliced and bloody shirt. "Aw man, not another shirt destroyed."

The blonde chuckled at the whining. If he could complain then he was alright. As they both shifted their attention to their fiend they noticed all too late that it was standing above them with a lifted huge arm ready to swing down the punch. Sitting down already Tyson managed to duck the strike but Max wasn't fortunate enough, though he managed to raise his arms so that his head didn't take the full blow. Because of the great force the blonde lifted from the ground and landed a bit further away. Swiftly Tyson flipped up from the ground again and put all the power he could into a well grounded kick. There was no way he was giving up yet. The monster stumbled a few steps back and roared a loud battle cry out over the normally silent street. The furry monster closed in on Tyson and again sent him flying with a crude blow to the torso. As Tyson landed he gasped for air as it was forced out of his lungs. But something wasn't quite alright. Pulling himself up on his elbow he pressed a hand to his chest and the world seemed to shrink. Something was waking up inside him. He could feel that something trying to find a way to blow his mind out of order but what was he supposed to do with it? What purpose did it have?

"Tyson! Look out!" The cry ripped Tyson out of his inner battle and all too late he saw the powered-up fist coming his way. Out of reflex the blunette scrunched his eyelids shut and shielded himself with his arms. To his surprise the expected pain didn't come. Instead he heard a sound that comes from liquid being sent flying. He opened his eyes only to find his Weapon hunched over him, protecting him from the impact. Though that wasn't what surprised him the most. Around both him and his partner was a huge shield made out of water. The monster cried a roar of frustration over having been deprived from hitting its target and slashed madly at the water shield located between him and his prey. Slashing away the water the shield quickly repaired itself, filling the gap with new water, making the beast even more furious. The pair stared shockingly at the unexpected life savour, hardly believing to be happening. Max thoughts mixed together so much that he had a difficult time sorting them out. He heard Tyson from a distance call out to him, apparently having recovered first.

"-x! Maxie! I need you to go and get Rei for me? And then run for the house. Think you can do that?" Absentmindedly the Weapon nodded. Why would Tyson want him to run to the house with a monster chasing him? Deciding to trust his partner he tried to assess the task given to him. Discouragingly he noticed that Rei was on the other side of the great hairy beast. "Good. You need to get him to the house as fast as possible. Don't worry about the Wendigo. I'll take care of him." Max nodded again, this time with more determination. As if on cue the water shield around them seemed to have run out of whatever it was that held it up and let the gravity work its magic. It splashed on the ground and the beast took the chance to rip his claws in their general direction. Both Max and Tyson jumped up in different directions and Tyson waved at the hairy beast making sure to get the monster to follow him. "Come on you big smelly ogre! Come and get me!"

Not wasting the opportunity his partner gave him Max sprinted away around the beast and over to Rei's side. He noted that the raven haired was still unconscious and let out a quick breath. Then he clumsily fixed the Chinese on to his back and rushed for the house.

The creature had soon after being lured to the blunette realized that he had been tricked. He turned to the blonde to see him running with his first unmoving prey and quickly ran after them. Max almost stopped when he noticed that the beast changed its direction for them but wouldn't allow it to slow him down. He ran as fast as he could with that extra weight on his back.

"Max! Hurry!" The blonde eagerly followed the voice. Feeling the adrenaline boosting his speed he sprinted off and ran past the small wooden gate leading to their front yard. As soon as he stepped in to the yard Max stumbled and fell to the ground, the weight of his hitchhiker adding to the impact. Tyson, who had managed to get inside, grinned wickedly and the American rolled around in time to see the monster run into an invisible wall. Not getting inside it hit the 'wall' angrily.

"What the hell is that?" The blonde exclaimed before he could stop the question. The monster outside the 'wall' stopped to beat at it and started circling around in impatience. Tyson directed his grin to Max.

"You mean the Wendigo or the seal?"

"Both!"

"Like we would ever live here unprotected. This seal is Kai's doing…. with added help from us of course." The voice the blunette used was full of pride. "That creature there is a Wendigo. Lives on the flesh of humans or humanoid beings. That big hairy buffoon must have found a way to mask its odor or we would have noticed it a long time ago. It reeks of death and decay."

Where he lie Max suddenly begun to laugh. And laughed hard he did. Of course it was a human-eating monster. What else could it have been? It appeared as though the laugh was contagious however as it didn't take long before Tyson joined his laughter. Together they picked the still unconscious Weapon up and carried him inside the house. They carefully lowered the Chinese down on the three seat sofa when a loud grumble echoed in the room and Max was startled as Tyson took a hold of his arm and dragged him into the kitchen. "Food, now!" Max smiled and tagged along.

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Rei awoke with a startle and sat up in a rush, breathing heavily. His wide golden eyes skimmed the area and he took in the sight of their living room. Sighing in relief he collapsed down again and moaned as a sharp pain soared through his head. Laying there in the silence and waiting for the pain to fade his mind drifted to the other two that had been there when he blacked out. Out of pure stubbornness he ignored the headache and as fast as possible forced himself out of the sofa to search for the others. They had to be okay. Some noise from the kitchen got his attention and he went to check it out. As he passed the staircase he heard Tyson whining about something upstairs. He let some relief rise inside him, even though the whining wasn't nice to his head, at least it confirmed that his friend was fine.

As he entered the kitchen he found Max standing by the sink, dishwashing and lulling a nice tune. Finally Rei let his worry subside. Walking up to Max's side Rei reached to the cupboard next to the blonde and took out a glass.

Next to him Max skipped a heartbeat and jumped to the side, alarmed by the sudden company. When he saw that it was Rei both joy and concern hit him at the same time. "Rei! You're awake! How do you feel?"

"Sorry, I though you heard me." The older Weapon said before he answered and took over the tap to fill his glass with water. "I'm alright."

Max let out a breath and relaxed. "Good to hear." He watched as his mentor figure gulped down the whole glass in one go before he continued. "Tyson and I ate a while ago, I hope you don't mind."

Rei lowered his now empty glass on the counter. He didn't mind at all. His appetite was zero at the moment. He was just tired and felt he would probably need an additional couple of hours, or days, of sleep before he would be back to normal.

"We saved some for you if you want?" Max said, obviously not a mind reader. He noticed though that the raven seemed to pull himself out from a sluggish state of mind and met his eyes.

"No, I'm fine, but thanks."

As he was going to clean his glass of Max quickly reached for it. "Let me. I take care of it."

"It's fine… I can do…"

"Ah ah, no arguing with me. I'm soon finished anyway." He said with a light laugh at the confused yet tired expression of the Chinese. "You go back to the living room and rest some more. I will join you shortly." Glad that it worked Max presented him with a reassuring smile. Rei smiled back in appreciation and nodded tiredly before retreating back to the living room without further complaints. When Rei was out of sight Max began heating some water and quickly finished with the last of his dishes. Then with a nice clean kitchen and a cup tea in hand he decided to join Rei. He found the Chinese sitting in the armchair with his arms resting in his crossed legs, his posture looking very relaxed. In fact, it looked like he was asleep again while sitting up. The closed eyes and calm breathing only further stated that he was resting. Wondering if he would disturb him or not, Max decided to just sneak in and put the cup beside him in case he would wake up soon. But he only had time to take a few steps when Rei's voice startled him yet again.

"You are not hurt in any way, are you? You and Tyson I mean."

Max somehow managed to save the tea that was almost tipping over the edge of the cup and he sighed in relief when he realized that he didn't get the hot drink over his hand. "Except that my elbows are scratched and Tyson's chest has four gashes, we are perfectly fine!" He replied in a happy tone. "It actually went surprisingly well. Here you go."

"That's good to hear." Rei opened his eyes and accepted the cup of tea with a thank you. "What is he doing up there anyway, I can hear him all the way here." He asked and sipped a bit of the drink as Max sat down on the three-seat sofa next to him.

The blonde grinned big. "He is talking with Kenny on the phone. Or more likely he is being scolded by Kenny over the phone because of the Dizzy-incident." Then he laughed a little. "I really wouldn't want to be in his shoes at the moment. He has really been taking the burn for a while now."

Rei just shook his head with a sigh. "What would he expect? He never learns." Rei glanced back at the blonde who snickered. "Now that you've met him, what do you think about Kenny?" He asked causally to keep the conversation going and he sipped on the tea some more as Max thought about the question and how to reply.

"He really is such a dork! But the dude seems like a good kid. Even though they are fighting now, I can see that he and Tyson are really good friends." He looked at the Rei who had closed his eyes and he took the chance to ask something that had been on his mind since they left the centre. "So, what is he anyway?"

The raven weapon halted his cup on its way up to his lips and opened his golden eyes to glance at him with sudden suspicion. Max thought back on how the question had sounded and he scratched the back of his head and laughed out. "I'm sorry; it came out a little wrong, didn't it?"

Rei lowered the cup completely. "That depends. What do you mean?"

Max plunged down in his seat to a more comfortable position, "Well, ever since I joined up with you guys I have met such different kind of people. And every one of them was something too, right? Like you and me are Weapons, Kai and Tyson are Attackers, that monster from before was apparently a Wendigo. And Mr. Dickenson I found out only moments ago that he is a Magician. So I was just wondering, what is Kenny?"

Rei relaxed again and couldn't help but to chuckle at Max's curious side. He seemed to have developed a big interest for them all. And Rei was so glad that the American was doing so well after only a week. "Kenny is in fact just an ordinary human." The raven haired stopped in his train of thoughts and thought again. "Well, maybe not so ordinary after all, since he is like the only human inside that organization."

"Ah, I see!" Max said intrigued by the information.

Suddenly Tyson came stomping into the room. Looking very grumpy and he didn't waste any time to speak his heart. "Man, Kenny was pissed this time. I have been listening to how irresponsible I am for more than an hour now! Seriously I don't think he even repeated himself, he could tell me on so many different ways!"

Max laughed at his roommate and Rei joined his fellow Weapon's laughter. "Of course he tells you that you are irresponsible, if he is not careful then you will really trash something important for him someday."

Tyson sat down on the edge of the sofa next to Max and glared at the older Weapon. The blunette smirked suddenly full of himself. "Oh yeah? If I'm so irresponsible then how come Max and I trashed that Wendigo before."

"How are those two situations even linked together?" Rei asked with a raised eyebrow but the sword-wielder didn't listen.

"You should have seen us Rei, too bad you were out cold; Max and I really whooped that monster's ass! I'm telling you, we hit him with raw power and perfect teamwork! Right buddy?" He turned to Max who nodded with equal enthusiasm. "Yeah, especially that water shield, it was totally awesome!"

Rei looked at them as they high-fived each other. Internally he drew some conclusions on his own. "A water shield? That's impressive. You would have a huge advantage in battle and if you can learn to control that power you would be a huge help to us."

"And that's a big if." A deep tone resonated through the room and they all turned in surprise to the open doorway to see Kai standing there leaning casually against the wall. Nobody had heard him come in nor did they know how long he had been standing there. Max dared a quick glance in Rei's direction and noted how the Chinese now looked like a heavy weight suddenly had been lifted from his shoulders. He shifted back to the Russian and found him sending an unreadable glare in Rei's direction. It hit him; Kai hadn't known that Rei was up yet.

As there was no reaction fitting to his mood Tyson took it in his own hands and quickly jumped over the back support of the sofa to angrily dash forward and seized the Attacker's collar. "Kai! Where the hell have you been, huh? You've been gone all day!"

"Hn." Brushing him off Kai walked past him and took a seat in the two-seat sofa, folding his arms and crossing his legs.

"Hey! Don't give me that!" Tyson yelled at him and skipped over the back support again to sit down next to Max. "We have been having a rough day. At least you owe us an explanation!"

"It must have been something important. You have been gone a really long time." Max agreed.

Kai was about to tell them that it was none of their business when felt Rei's warning feelings drill through him and he made the mistake of following that feeling to gaze at its owner. He sighed and braced himself. "I was at the library again looking for clues. When I left the building I ran into Spencer and Ian. And we fought." Kai let the silence hang for a moment when he aimed a meaning look at his partner. "They told me that their residence is at the Abbey."

Max suddenly felt how the air in the room grew heavier and he sneaked a glance at how the other's handled it, not really knowing how to react at all. Both Rei and Tyson wore a shocked face; Rei's almost leaned more towards total disbelief. "Are you completely sure Kai? We've been searching through that facility several times already." Rei said with a cautious tone. "And every single time it was empty."

"Yeah, what's up with that Kai?" Tyson added.

"Let go there and check it out again, one last time." Max put in when Kai didn't attempt to give his partner's question an answer and successfully got the attention of the others. He shrugged casually, though he couldn't deny that one of the reasons he suggested it was because he wanted to see this dreaded 'abbey' for himself and learn more about the others. "It can't hurt."

Turning his head away Kai snorted. "We'll see."

Hearing those discussion ending two words the general mood in the room calmed down and Tyson saw that as a chance to tell Kai some big news. "Well, it seems like you have been having very fun day and all that, but Max and I had an awesome adventure today! We have found our power."

"Good, then you can start working on it." Kai said like it was nothing grand. To him it had just been a matter of time before the duo would find the connection between them. In his opinion it was more like a responsibility than anything. But he should have known, he and Tyson never agreed on anything, especially not when it came to things like this.

"I'm telling you man, it's a big deal. You should have seen us out there today. We totally kicked that…"

Kai closed his eyes and let Tyson's voice fade a little, he didn't feel like listening to the over the top explanation that was probably not completely true anyway.

"Apparently they can form some kind of water shield." Rei filled in on the side line when he noticed that Kai didn't even bother to listen to Tyson's rambling. The line made Kai open his eyes in realization. Meeting his companion's knowing smirk Kai knew that Rei and he had been thinking the same thing. He couldn't help but to grin himself. That kind of power would definitely be a great advantage against two certain Russian acquaintances of his.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have Max here in the family after all.

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**A/N: **That's it for this time folks. Another long chapter to you and I really hope you liked it. Have a great Christmas holiday and make sure to spend it with people you love and cherish.

So until next time.

Many greetings

/Bonnie


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